India Should Allow Heavy Mineral Mining To Grow: MEAI

In a news article on The Hindu, Justice Kapadia made a point that the judges should make a balanced judgment with regard to environmental concerns and sustainable development. Banning mining activities because a suspected activity of illegal mining is not fair to the thousands unemployed thereafter in the mining areas.

Economic Times carried another article where the mining engineers association of India urged the government to allow private mining companies to carry out Thorium mining. Some eminent members of MEAI believe that there is no logical explanation why private miners are barred from mining thorium.

If the processes are fast tracked and necessary clearances are given to private miners, better development can be achieved in lesser amount of time. Our country has a reserve if 500 Million Tonnes of ilmenite, however the production is a meager 8 lakh tones annually. Same for Zircon, the resource base is estimated to be over 32 Million tones, but production is just 35,000 tonnes.

Companies like VV Mineral, owned by Mr. S. Vaikundarajan, who were falsely accused of being a part of Thorium scam, are still under the ban, even after the central governments have given them a clean chit.