Mining & Processing

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RajeshA
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Mining & Processing

Post by RajeshA »

Please post all articles to do with
  1. Mining in India
  2. Processing Plants in India
  3. Issues of Land for Mining
  4. Politics around Mining
  5. Strategic Aspects of Exporting Minerals and Materials
  6. Rare Earth Elements
  7. Precious Minerals - Diamonds, etc.
Thank you!
RajeshA
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Re: Mining & Processing

Post by RajeshA »

Published on Aug 26, 2010
Toyota to set up Rs 150-cr rare earth processing plant: Business Standard
Toyota Tsusho Corporation (TTC), a group company of the Japan-based automotive major Toyota Motor Corporation, has proposed to set up a rare earth processing plant at Chhatrpur in south Orissa's Ganjam district at an investment of Rs 150 crore.

The rare earth processing plant will be set up by Toyotsu Rare Earths Limited (TREO), a joint venture between TTC and Indian Rare Earths Limited (IREL).

The rare earth processing plant would come up on 50 acres of land at Chhatrapur. Production is scheduled to take off from May 2011. The plant will have a capacity of 10,000 tonnes per annum.
T Aoki, director of TREO and S N Singh, the company's advisor on Wednesday, gave a detailed presentation to the state Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik at the state secretariat.

The project is aimed at extracting rare earth elements like lanthanum, cerium, samarium, neodymium and praseodymium, which are essential for production of rare earth magnets (strong permanent magnets made from alloys or rare earths) that can be used in hybrid vehicles, computer hard drives, audio speakers and lot of other modern-day electronic products.

IREL which deals with the mining and separation of minerals like rutile, zircon, ilmenite, sillimanite, garnet and monazite from beach sand, would provide the raw material- rare earth chloride needed for the plant.
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Re: Mining & Processing

Post by RajeshA »

X-Posted from Oil & Natural Gas: News & Discussion Thread
Ameet wrote:For lack of a better thread:

Rio Says India Diamond Project Is Biggest Global Find in Decade

http://www.businessweek.com/news/2010-0 ... ecade.html

The Bunder project is located about 500 kilometers (311 miles) from Delhi in Madyha Pradesh. The deposit has an estimated inferred resource of 37 million metric tons at a grade of 0.7 carats per ton for 27.4 million carats. A carat is a fifth of a gram.
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Re: Mining & Processing

Post by RajeshA »

17 Rare Earth Elements - From Wikipedia

Code: Select all

Atomic Number | Symbol | Name                           | Uses
21......................Sc.......Scandium................	
39......................Y........Yttrium..................
57......................La.......Lanthanum..............High refractive index glass, flint, hydrogen storage, battery-electrode, camera lens
58......................Ce.......Cerium.................chemical oxidizing agent, polishing powder, yellow colors in glass and ceramics, catalyst for Self-cleaning oven etc.
59......................Pr.......Praseodymium...........Rare-earth magnets, laser, green colors in glass and ceramics, flint
60......................Nd.......Neodymium..............Rare-earth magnets, laser, violet colors in glass and ceramics, ceramic capacitor
61......................Pm.......Promethium.............Nuclear battery
62......................Sm.......Samarium...............Rare-earth magnets, Laser, neutron capture, maser
63......................Eu.......Europium...............Red and blue phosphors, laser, mercury-vapor lamp
64......................Gd.......Gadolinium.............Rare-earth magnets, high refractive index glass or garnets, laser, x-ray tube, computer memory, neutron capture
65......................Tb.......Terbium................Green phosphors, laser, fluorescent lamp
66......................Dy.......Dysprosium.............Rare-earth magnets, laser,
67......................Ho.......Holmium................Laser
68......................Er.......Erbium.................Laser, vanadium steel
69......................Tm.......Thulium................Portable X-ray machine
70......................Yb.......Ytterbium..............Infrared Laser, chemical reducing agent, High-temperature superconductors (YBCO)
71......................Lu.......Lutetium....................	
RajeshA
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Re: Mining & Processing

Post by RajeshA »

Published on Sept. 23, 2010
By Keith Bradsher
Amid Tension, China Blocks Vital Exports to Japan: New York Times
the Chinese government has blocked exports to Japan of a crucial category of minerals used in products like hybrid cars, wind turbines and guided missiles.

An engine of a Toyota Prius. Each Prius uses at least two pounds of rare earth elements in its various parts.
Chinese customs officials are halting shipments to Japan of so-called rare earth elements, preventing them from being loaded aboard ships this week at Chinese ports, three industry officials said Thursday.
The United States, the European Union and Mexico brought W.T.O. complaints against China last November after it issued regulations limiting the export of yellow phosphorus and eight other industrial materials. American trade officials have been considering for months whether to challenge China’s longstanding and increasingly tight quotas on rare earth exports as well.

China mines 93 percent of the world’s rare earth minerals, and more than 99 percent of the world’s supply of some of the most prized rare earths, which sell for several hundred dollars a pound.
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Re: Mining & Processing

Post by RajeshA »

X-Posted from Managing Chinese Threat Thread

Published on Sep 24, 2010
By Ed Flanagan
China – Japan strife spotlights a strategic U.S. vulnerability: NBC
An April 2010 Government Accountability Office study put the shift to Chinese dominance in the rare earth minerals market in stark terms: “The United States previously performed all stages of the rare earth material supply chain, but now most rare earth materials processing is performed in China, giving it a dominant position that could affect worldwide supply and prices.”

The report spells out the consequences of China’s near monopoly of the supply of rare earth minerals, but also notes that rebuilding a U.S. rare earth supply chain could take as long as 15 years and would require “securing capital investments in processing infrastructure, developing new technologies, and acquiring patents, which are currently held by international companies.”

The embarrassing revelation that critical parts for top American military weapon systems such as General Dynamics’s M1A2 Abrams tank and Lockheed Martin’s Aegis SPY-1 radar brought about a call for congressional hearings on the issue, but it could be decades before an American supply chain for rare earth materials is rebuilt.

Change of dominance
The United States was not always so dependent on other countries for its mineral needs.

During the post-World War II era, as the need for uranium for atomic weapons to compete in the Cold War arms race grew, a rush of mineral prospecting took place throughout the southwest United States.

The discovery of sizable deposits of rare earth minerals, like flourocarbonate bastnaesite in the U.S. during the 1940s, proved to be of little use for uranium enrichment for bombs. But an element derived from bastnaesite, europium, was found to be essential for the production of the cathode ray tubes required for early color televisions.

With that, the industry exploded in the United States as major mineral companies like Molycorp Minerals took the lead in the extraction and trade of rare earth metals. Other American conglomerates – notably General Motors, General Dynamics and Lockheed Martin Corp – quickly developed new uses for the metals, among them sophisticated new lasers, night-vision goggles and improved radar.

Despite a wealth of rare earth minerals in the U.S., the manufacture of the minerals has become dominated by China.
In an intriguing report written earlier this year for the Institute for the Analysis of Global Security, researchers looked into the 1995 sale of Magnequench. The company was formed in 1986 by GM to manufacture neodymium-iron-boron magnets – powerful magnets that are used in everything from car engines to electrical power steering.

In 1995, two Chinese companies, likely seeing the potential military application of the product and catching GM as it was attempting to break into the Chinese market, acquired Magnequench for $70 million. The sale was approved by the U.S. government with the stipulation that the buyers keep the company in its hometown of Anderson, Indiana for five years.
The day after that deal expired in 2002, the Chinese company shut down the entire operation, shipped all its manufacturing equipment and resumed operations in China.

The research report noted, “In less than one decade, the permanent magnet market experienced a complete shift in leadership.”

The Magnequench sale represented a titanic shift in the competitive advantage of the United States and set the scene for the loss of America’s manufacturing dominance in the rare earth mineral industry.
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Re: Mining & Processing

Post by Sanjay M »

(CNN)Rescue cage arrives at Chile mine

I always shudder at stories about miners being trapped or buried alive. Does any know of the history of mining accidents in India?
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Re: Mining & Processing

Post by RajeshA »

Published on Sep 23, 2010
By William R. Hawkins
A Belated Reaction To China's Rare Earth Threat: American Thinker
On Thursday, the U.S. House Science and Technology Committee marked up H.R. 6160, the Rare Earths and Critical Materials Revitalization Act of 2010. The bill had only been introduced the day before by Rep. Kathy Dahlkemper (D-PA). According to the Committee's press release,

"The bill sets up and funds a program of research and development aimed at advancing technology affecting rare earths throughout their life cycle, from mining to manufacturing to recycling. It also broadens an existing program of loan guarantees to facilitate the development of these new technologies by private industry. The legislation is intended to help meet national economic and strategic objectives by supporting existing efforts to overcome our current supply deficiencies, while opening the field to enhanced competition in both the domestic and international marketplaces."

Chairman Rep. Bart Gordon (D-TN), an original cosponsor, stated, "I believe it would be foolish to stake our national defense and economic security on China's goodwill." Amen to that, but it will take years to remedy a situation through a resumption of mining operations that should never have been allowed-- or been forced, to close down.
Theo_Fidel

Re: Mining & Processing

Post by Theo_Fidel »

RajeshA wrote:X-Posted from Oil & Natural Gas: News & Discussion Thread
Ameet wrote:For lack of a better thread:

Rio Says India Diamond Project Is Biggest Global Find in Decade

http://www.businessweek.com/news/2010-0 ... ecade.html

The Bunder project is located about 500 kilometers (311 miles) from Delhi in Madyha Pradesh. The deposit has an estimated inferred resource of 37 million metric tons at a grade of 0.7 carats per ton for 27.4 million carats. A carat is a fifth of a gram.
One of the odd things about diamonds in India is that most of the diamond 'pipes'
are completely eroded, unlike everywhere else. There are thought to hundreds of such pipes.
The few intact ones are in the north such as Panna (35 carat diamond found recently) and now Bunder.
There are undoubtedly many more.

Once the pipes were eroded the diamonds were widely scattered in a 'diamondiferous' sedimentary
layer all the way from the Vindyan Deccan down to Cuddapah and even the TN border.

The rivers that cut through this deposit concentrated the stones into small caches that
then in turn produced every one of the large and millions of small stones collected.
These were the diamond mines of India! 60,000 people sifting through river sand for a rock or two.

Since the rivers only cut a small portion of the diamond bearing layer it is thought
that 95 % of the diamonds are still in place under the soil of India!

It is un-concentrated and sporadic however.
And despite periodic plans to strip mine the countryside, probably uneconomic to recover.
Every now and then a farmer digging for a well still finds a large diamond or two that
hints at the riches still buried there.
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Re: Mining & Processing

Post by Fidel Guevara »

Chilean miners freed from record depths

Great video of the first few miners to be rescued - Chilean flags everywhere, chants of "Chile! Chile!", and the President of Chile personally present to hug every man coming out.
http://www.cnn.com/2010/WORLD/americas/ ... tml?hpt=T2
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Re: Mining & Processing

Post by RajeshA »

Published on Oct 16, 2010
By Yuka Hayashi
Japan Scrambles for Rare Earth: Wall Street Journal
This month, Prime Minister Naoto Kan agreed with Mongolian Prime Minister Sukhbaatar Batbold on a fast-track project to develop rare-earth metals in Mongolia. Exploration is starting this month. Similarly, Japan's Sumitomo Corp. is developing a mine in Kazakhstan.

Sojitz Corp., a trading company and one of Japan's largest rare-earth importers, estimates Japan will face a shortage of 10,200 tons of the metals next year if China keeps its global export quota at this year's level of around 30,000 tons. Japan is projected to use 32,000 tons next year, compared with 24,800 tons for the other nations excluding China combined, Sojitz says.

"Securing stable long-term supplies of mining resources including rare earths is one of Japan's important diplomatic goals," Foreign Minister Seiji Maehara said at a press conference this month. "We will work as a team to provide strong support for our private companies."
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Re: Mining & Processing

Post by abhischekcc »

The Japanese move highlights the 'tactical brilliance' of the Chinese in restricting supply of rare earth metals to Japan during the recent crisis. They got the Japanese to back down during a very non-crucial period. Now just imagine how CHina could have impacted the Japanese-US alliance during a shooting war, say, over Taiwan.

The Chinese just sacrificed the Queen to kill a Rook. Dhakkan kahin ke.
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Re: Mining & Processing

Post by Ameet »

Rare Earth in BlackBerry to Prius Underscores Alarm Over Supply

http://www.businessweek.com/news/2010-1 ... upply.html

Toyota said last month it created a special unit to ensure its supply isn’t disrupted and recently announced a contract to obtain rare-earth metals from India. The carmaker, the world’s largest producer of gasoline-electric vehicles, also uses the materials in electric motors.
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Post by Ameet »

India aims for 2011 rare earth exports

http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE69Q1V320101027

The Indian government is spending 1.4 billion rupees ($32 million) on a 5,000 metric ton capacity plant in Orissa, amid global concerns China may be taking advantage of its dominance of resources to squeeze export supply.

"India had stopped producing rare earths in 2004 due to lack of market competitiveness, but now we have improved in-house technology to be more competitive," Patra told Reuters.

"Going by our domestic demand there should be enough for exports," he said.

"Indian domestic demand was about 200 (metric) tons a year in 2004. That may have gone up somewhat but we still think we will have a lot to export," he said.
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Re: Mining & Processing

Post by Airavat »

Rajasthan HC stays allotment of 1,117 sandstone mining leases

In a major setback to the state government, the Rajasthan HC on Monday stayed the allotment process of 1,117 sandstone mining leases at Sihanda in Balesar tehsil of Jodhpur district. The leases were granted without clearance from the Ministry of Environment and Forest (MoEF). The court gave the order in a PIL by one Dinesh Bothra to stop mining in the region.
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Post by VinodTK »

Uranium found in 2 AP villages
March 8: In a major thrust to the nuclear power generation programme in the country, the city-based Atomic Minerals Directorate has discovered uranium reserves in Peddur and Kottur villages of Karimnagar district.

Uranium is present in these villages in the form of its compound, tri-uranium octoxide. Researchers of the AMD centres in Hyderabad and Shillong jointly carried out geological investigations coupled with reconnaissance radiometric survey over parts of Karimnagar Granulite Terrain (KGT), spread over an area of 4,000 sq km.

India’s ambitious nuclear energy programme aims at generating 20 giga watt of nuclear power by 2020 and the discovery of new uranium resources will further boost the nuclear energy sector.

The AMD team comprising Mr Anjan Som, Mr M. Sai Baba, and others found several radioactive anomalies indicating the presence of uranium and thorium within granite formed during Archaean to early-Proterozoic era (3.8 to 2.5 billion years ago) at Peddur and Kottur villages. Analysis of the sediment has shown high values of uranium. Thorium, however, was present in negligible quantities.

In Peddur village, the AMD team noticed the presence of as high as 1.96 per cent tri-uranium octoxide or U3O8. In the Kottur area, U3O8 was present up to 0.059 per cent. In both the places thorium was found in minute quantities. The discovery of uranium, according to the researchers, has opened up the possibility of “finding uranium mineralisation in Archaean meta-sediments and thus provides a thrust for uranium exploration in similar geological environs in India.”

Incidentally, earlier radiometric surveys in the area did not yield any results. A second survey, however, revealed the presence of uranium deposits.
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Re: Mining & Processing

Post by ManishH »

India's iron ore exports seen less than 100m tonnes
India usually exports about half of its annual iron ore output of around 200 million tonnes, most of them going to China.
Falling ore exports is a positive sign, but ideally there should be a complete ban, even if India cannot turn all her Iron Ore into steel today. There's no point exporting ore to PRC and letting it turn into steel - most probably being used in Chinese arms that it threatens to rain back at us.

I don't know why Indian leadership cannot understand a basic principle that a nation should export manufactured goods, not raw materials. This simple thing was stressed so much by Bapu during freedom struggle. GoI continues to allow exports of ore just for some foreign exchange, the only reason for the fall in exports is the global price and ban in Karnataka; not a conscious policy decision.

There are already powerful mining lobbies at work in reversing the trend and resuming exports ...

Hopes rise for return of Indian iron ore exports
From the beginning of April the export ban will be a thing of the past
Dearly hoping that SC bench will intervene and judicial activism will save India from this strategic sellout.
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Re: Mining & Processing

Post by ManishH »

Karnataka to issue iron ore export permits

It's ironical that the supreme court was the last hope in saving our raw materials. The supreme court, rightly so, did not find any legal problem in exporting raw materials. The problem isn't legal, it's just common sense - no nation should export raw materials without first giving due investment into industry that can convert it into ready products.

So now iron ore exports will resume, the ore will be bought by Cheen, which'll turn it into military hardware, which will one day rain back on the nation. Sad, but at least Yedyurappa tried.

How is it any different from Arab oil being used by west ?
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Post by ManishH »

SC halts operations of 19 mines in Karnataka
The Supreme Court yesterday halted operations of 19 iron ore mines in Bellary district following acceptance of the environmental panel's damning report by the BJP government of Karnataka. This clears the way for implementation of recommendations against rampant illegal mining in the state.
Finally, the executive realizes that loot of nation's mineral resources has gone too far. Pragmatism shown by all - the report shied away from making political statements, the state government realized illegal mining has to be stopped, and the SC held back from unilateralism. Cheers!
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Post by Airavat »

Mining cos lose Rs 34Kcr market cap on draft bill worry

In the controversial Mines And Minerals Development Regulation Bill (MMDR), coal companies will have to pay 26% of the profits to local authorities and non-coal or mineral companies will have to share an equivalent of the 100% of the royalty they pay with the local authorities. This decision has been finalised more or less, which will now be discussed by the cabinet.

The market didn’t seem to like what it heard and coal and mineral mining companies lost Rs 34,000 crore in market cap. Coal India , which is awaiting its entry into the Sensex in August, lost over Rs 20,000 crore in markets cap alone. SAIL is estimated to take a hit of 10-11% due to higher royalty on captive iron ore mines, while Tata Steel will be hit by 6%. Aluminium companies will be the least impacted as bauxite royalty accounts for a very small proportion of their costs.
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Re: Mining & Processing

Post by partha »

RajeshA wrote:Published on Sept. 23, 2010
By Keith Bradsher
Amid Tension, China Blocks Vital Exports to Japan: New York Times
the Chinese government has blocked exports to Japan of a crucial category of minerals used in products like hybrid cars, wind turbines and guided missiles.

An engine of a Toyota Prius. Each Prius uses at least two pounds of rare earth elements in its various parts.
Chinese customs officials are halting shipments to Japan of so-called rare earth elements, preventing them from being loaded aboard ships this week at Chinese ports, three industry officials said Thursday.
The United States, the European Union and Mexico brought W.T.O. complaints against China last November after it issued regulations limiting the export of yellow phosphorus and eight other industrial materials. American trade officials have been considering for months whether to challenge China’s longstanding and increasingly tight quotas on rare earth exports as well.

China mines 93 percent of the world’s rare earth minerals, and more than 99 percent of the world’s supply of some of the most prized rare earths, which sell for several hundred dollars a pound.
Japan finds rare earths in Pacific seabed
Japanese researchers say they have discovered vast deposits of rare earth minerals, used in many hi-tech appliances, in the seabed.

The geologists estimate that there are about a 100bn tons of the rare elements in the mud of the Pacific Ocean floor.

The US Geological Survey has estimated that global reserves are just 110 million tonnes, found mainly in China, Russia and other former Soviet countries, and the United States.
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Post by RajeshA »

I know it has already been posted, but a different source.

Published on Jul 06, 2011
By Dan Nakaso
Mineral-rich ocean mud stirs environmental fears: Star Adverstiser
The Pacific Ocean sediment was full of heavier, more expensive rare-earth elements. And an area of 1 square kilometer near one site could meet one-fifth of the entire annual, worldwide demand for rare-earth elements, the researchers said.

Extracting the elements even from deep ocean mud would be easy, said scientist Yasuhiro Kato, a member of the research team.

"Sea mud can be brought up to ships, and we can extract rare earths right there using simple acid leaching," Kato told Reuters. Within a few hours "we can extract 80 to 90 percent of rare earths from the mud."
"Collecting mud off of the bottom of the ocean and dumping it back will disperse it all over the water column," said University of Hawaii oceanography professor Eric De Carlo. "The environmentalists are just going to love this. They're going to cry bloody murder."
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Post by RajeshA »

Published Saturday, Jul. 16, 2011
By Geoffrey York and Brenda Bow
For rare earths, an abundance of interest: The Globe and Mail Canada
Western leaders are increasingly anxious about China’s chokehold on a 97 per cent share of the supply, controlling the market with its abundant, low-cost production. The country dominates with just 37 per cent of the world’s proven reserves. It produced 118,900 tonnes of rare earths in 2010, and exported just over 30,000 tonnes. Leaders have watched nervously as China restricts its exports, resulting in price rises of up to tenfold for some rare earths over the past year.

China updated its rare earth quotas this week, which put them on par for 2011 with last year’s numbers. The U.S. and the European Union later complained that Beijing had, in fact, added products to the list, and are calling for a new, fairer export restrictions policy.
The mine at Steenkampskraal contains some of the world’s richest grades of rare earths. But the ore also contains thorium, which is highly radioactive, creating problems of storage and disposal. This small tract of desert is one of the most radioactive sites in the world, according to a consultant at the mine.

The mine site is riddled with radioactive waste from its production years of 1952 to 1963. Even the crumbling buildings, segregated under apartheid rules into detached houses for white employees and hostel dormitories for black workers, still contain radioactive material. And none of it was cleaned up when the mine shut down.

Great Western Minerals Group Ltd. (GWG-X0.810.033.85%) of Saskatoon, a small company with a market valuation of less than $300-million and a stock price below $1, is hoping to reopen the long-abandoned mine as swiftly as possible, as it races against a group of other upstart rare-earth companies to bring new production to market.
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Post by ManishH »

SC mining ban in Bellary puts the squeeze on Reddys
The Supreme Court order halting mining activity in Bellary district, along the Andhra Pradesh-Karnataka border, has not come a day too soon. For years, all that has been evident in the chain of hillocks in ore-rich Bellary district of Karnataka are thick clouds of dust kicked up by dynamite blasts, destroying the environment, killing wildlife and pauperising small farmers. The mining of manganese and iron ore in the last decade in Hospet, Sandur and Bellary has played havoc.
...
The Lokayukta report has assessed that a whopping Rs 215.12 crore has been parked by ministers G Janardhana Reddy, G Karunakara Reddy and B Sriramulu in the tax havens of Singapore and Dubai.
...
That's not all. The powerful Reddy brothers, who were taking political cover for the past three years by claiming their mining business was limited to Andhra Pradesh (Obulapuram Mining Company and Anantapur Mining Corporation), have been laid bare by the Lokayukta report.

The report substantiates that Janardhana Reddy and his wife G Lakshmi Aruna held 100% stake in Associated Mining Company ( AMC) in Bellary from August 2009, and were actively involved in the mining business without even obtaining the necessary permits.

The final report also recommended that the government not only drop the Reddy brothers and Sriramulu from the cabinet but also to initiate action against them under the Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988, to which the Reddys have taken objection. (Hmm probably too hard an action for the "nationalist" party to take)
Meanwhile, congress keeps rich tradition of corruption alive in neighbouring state too:
What Cong didn’t read in Hegde report: Andhra ‘link’
What has been little talked about, so far, is the report’s mention of the crucial role played by ports in Congress-ruled Andhra Pradesh in the export of illegally mined iron ore.

The Justice Santosh Hegde report says the maximum export of iron ore in Andhra was out of the Krishnapatnam Port, a private port that started operating only in April 2008 and has been developed by Navayuga Engineering Company Ltd, located in Nellore district adjoining Kadapa.

The Lokayukta report states that 1.11 crore metric tonnes of illegal iron ore was exported from Krishnapatnam — 25 lakh tonnes in 2008-09, 51 lakh tonnes in 2009-10 and 25.68 lakh tonnes till July 2010.

Through the Kakinada Anchorage Port, run by the Andhra government, and Kakidana Deep Water Port run by Kakinada Sea Ports Ltd, 17.55 lakh MT of illegal iron ore was exported.

The Lokayukta report states that 1.11 crore metric tonnes of illegal iron ore was exported from Krishnapatnam till July 2010. Through the Kakinada Anchorage Port, run by Andhra government, and Kakidana Deep Water Port, 17.55 lakh MT of illegal iron ore was exported.
Bottom line - both the "secular" ore and "nationalist" ore - all is ending up in China - which'll use it to make steel and manufacture arms and use them against Bharat mata.
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Re: Mining & Processing

Post by Pranay »

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/08/02/busin ... ?ref=world
India’s wave of corruption scandals has hit yet another industry, iron ore mining, implicating companies that include the flagship of one of this nation’s richest men.

As a result of a government investigative report issued late last week, several stocks have lost value — including shares of Adani Enterprises, the biggest piece of a mining, port and power plant empire built by the billionaire Gautam S. Adani, India’s sixth-wealthiest person.
The 466-page report, by a former Indian Supreme Court justice who is now a public ombudsman, contends public officials and companies cheated the government of Karnataka state out of billions of dollars in royalty, tax and other payments from a lucrative domestic and foreign trade in iron ore. The ore is an important raw material for steel that has been in great demand in fast growing China and India.

“Huge bribes were paid,” said the report, written by Santosh Hegde, the former justice. “Mafia type operations were the routine practices of the day.”
Procedurally, it is unclear what will happen next. Mr. Hegde does not have the power to prosecute the companies and individuals he accuses in his report. That is up to Karnataka’s government, which has previously played down concerns about mining, or to the judicial system.

India’s Supreme Court on Friday temporarily suspended all iron ore mining in Bellary, the region that was the main focus of the inquiry. The court in recent years has often led the charge to prosecute officials accused of corruption, and anticorruption advocates hope that it will do so in this case.

The scandal forced the chief minister of Karnataka state to resign on Sunday, although he has denied wrongdoing.

Shares of Adani Enterprises were down nearly 23 percent on Thursday and Friday, but they regained almost 9 percent on Monday.

The stock of another company implicated in the report, JSW Steel, fell more than 10 percent late last week. JSW’s shares dropped by an additional 10.3 percent on Monday, after Citigroup downgraded the stock and put a sell rating on it.
A big break in the investigation occurred early last year. Anticorruption agents raided the offices of Adani Enterprises, which operated an iron ore terminal at the Indian port of Belekeri, on the Arabian Sea, and discovered a document that appeared to be an illicit payroll.

A computer file from 2008 listed payoffs that Adani Enterprises was suspected of making to government officials. The port director, for instance, was paid 50,000 rupees ($1,100) per ship that set sail from the port, the file said. A customs official got 100,000 rupees every three months and 0.50 rupee per ton of iron ore shipped, it said. Police inspectors received 14,000 rupees every month, and local politicians were paid “once in a while,” the file said. The report was issued as Indians increasingly questioned the growing wealth and power amassed by a small elite group. In a separate corruption scandal, government auditors estimated that officials may have cost the federal government $40 billion by giving telecommunications licenses to favored companies rather than auctioning them.
In the case of Adani Enterprises, Mr. Hegde’s report says the company helped mining concerns export illicitly obtained iron ore to China and other countries from the port, while engaging in a systematic bribery campaign that covered virtually every level of government. He recommended that the company be “barred from participating in any future contract, grant or lease, etc. by the government.”

In a written statement, Adani Enterprises Ltd. strongly rebutted the accusations and said it had been involved only in handling iron ore shipments and had never mined or owned the commodity itself.

“Any alleged illegal gratification or payoffs cannot be attributed to AEL given that AEL has been a mere port operator and the cargo interest always was with either miners or other parties,” the statement said, referring to the company by its initials. “Such gratifications if at all having been made, cannot be attributed to AEL.”

JSW Steel, one of India’s largest producers of iron ore, is accused of making a 100 million rupee ($2.3 million) donation to an educational trust run by Mr. Yeddyurappa’s sons. The company and its affiliate, according to the report, also spent 200 million rupees to buy an acre of industrial land outside Bangalore from the Yeddyurappa family. Mr. Hegde charges that similar land sold in the area at the time for as little as 12.4 million rupees an acre.

In a statement, JSW Steel said “all the transactions have been done in a legally compliant manner.”
ManishH
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Re: Mining & Processing

Post by ManishH »

Santosh Hegde's 'Eventful' Term Comes to an End
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The Lokayukta report, that created a political upheaval throwing up the worst ever crisis to the BJP's first ever government in the south, estimated that the loss to state exchequer because of illegal mining between 2006 and 2010 at Rs 16,085 crore.
Now the "nationalist" government heaves a sigh of relief since no one left to expose it's "nation building" activities.

Meanwhile, the "nationalist" CM promised to be back to the gaddi in "6 months". Just tightening the shoelaces here :lol: ...

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Vipul
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Re: Mining & Processing

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Rich platinum deposits found in India.

The Geological Survey of India has found a rich deposit of Platinum Group of Elements (PGE) in the Baula-Nuasahi complex in Orissa. In collaboration with the Orissa Mining Corporation, the Institute is conducting a study on the feasibility of PGE mining in the area.

"There are some encouraging signs,'' said A Sundaramoorthy of the Institute. ``The evaluation process is still on. The deposits are good,'' he said.

Baula-Nausahi is 170 kilometres north east of Bhubaneswar, and is the only proven PGM deposit in the country with an estimated 14.2 million tonnes of deposit, confined to the active chromite mines. The area has two types of PGE - type-I which is rich in platinum and type-II, which is palladium-rich and is hydrothermal.

For many Indians, platinum is becoming a preferred metal of choice for jewellery.

Though the jewellery demand for gold rose 69% over the past year, demand for platinum jewellery saw a jump of 45%, traders said. Vijay Jain of of Orra brand jewellery by Rosy Blue said platinum jewellery demand rose 50% in the past year. This was seconded by Gitanjali Gems' Mehul Choksi, who has pegged the growth at 25% this year.

Officials said the PGE found in Orissa comprises a family of six greyish to silver white metals - platinum, palladium, iridium, rhodium, osmium and ruthenium. As per the assessment of the Institute, Bangur in Keonjhar district lies within the chromite leasehold area of Orissa Mining Corporation in the southern extension of Baula-Nuasahi complex.

A study by the Institute showed that metals other than platinum were detected in the area, like rhodium.

The Institute had earlier discovered new deposits of bauxite and manganese with 1.97 million tonnes and 7.20 million tonnes of resources respectively in the state of Orissa. While iron ore was discovered in the states of Karnataka (8 million tonne) and Tamil Nadu (14.03 million tonne, graphite was discovered in Tamil Nadu (0.76 million tonne).

The Institute has also discovered gold deposits in Rajasthan, Jharkhand and Karnataka and some basemetals like copper, lead and zinc in the states of Rajasthan, Maharashtra and Madhya Pradesh.
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Re: Mining & Processing

Post by Vipul »

India returns to rare earths production.

After a 7-year hiatus, India has decided to expand its output of rare earth minerals by stepping up indigenous production of the cticial metals.

India, which has already allotted over $32m to set up a 5,000 metric tonne capacity plant in Orissa, is planning to step up indigenous production of rare earth minerals even further.

Given the concerns over China's flexing of its muscle on the international stage by restricting rare earth exports, Indian mine ministry officials told a newswire agency that a strategy paper was in the works by a government panel to give impetus to exploration and discovery of rare earth elements.

Earlier, R Patra, chairman of the state run Indian Rare Earths Limited said his firm had received environmental clearance to produce the hi-tech minerals at a plant in eastern state of Orissa.

Lack of competition in the market has ensured that India stopped producing rare earths in 2004. The chairman noted that with improved in-house technology which would make the firm more competitive, there would be enough for exports after taking into account the domestic demand for the various minerals.

The committee to be set up in India is to look into the current availability of rare earths and decide on a new strategy for production, in a bid to ensure long term availability of the raw material.

The world's largest rare earth producer and exporter, China, accounts for more than 90% of global production and is home to one third of the world's total reserves.

India imports all its current requirements from China and uses the precious metals in consumer goods industries, petroleum refineries and the automobile sector.

In a bid to counter the fall in exports from China, several companies have got into rare earth production in India. Toyota Tsusho, a part of Toyoto Motors, is setting up a rare earth processing plant in Vishakapatnam, reportedly with a partial supply of mixed rare earth chloride from Indian Rare Earths.

German chemical giant BASF and Indian Oil Corporation are also said to have plans to produce rare earth minerals from catalysts used in the petroleum refinery sector.

China, in recent years, has become a major consumer of metals owing to the robust growth in its economy. According to a World Bank report, between 2002 and 2008, Chinese consumption of key metals grew at an average 16.1% per annum as compared with less than 1% demand outside China.

In China, rare earths production as a percentage of the global total has been decreasing. Wang Caifeng, formerly with the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, told a Chinese newspaper that the ratio of output from China as compared to that of the rest of the world would fall sharply from the current 90% to 60% within two years, with several foreign players resuming mining of the precious minerals.

China, which sits on just 30% of global reserves, has seen reserves depleted and has suffered environmental damage due to rampant mining. However, it is not just China that has been reducing production.

The United States and Australia, which also have sizeable reserves, slashed production because of lower prices as a result of what they termed overproduction in China. As China brought down its exports, prices on the international market have surged.

The decision in June by Japanese chemical giant Shin-Etsu Chemical Company to raise the price of its rare earth magnets prompted other enterprises to follow suit. Shin-Etsu Chemical said it would increase by over 40% the price of rare earth magnets, one of its main products, in Japan and the overseas market effective July 1.

The company said it was raising prices because the prices of neodymium and dysprosium, the key raw materials for rare earth magnets, continue to rise steeply due to mining restrictions and the cutting of export quotas for rare earth minerals by China.

"Demand for rare earths is mostly in developed countries such as the United States, Japan, Europe and Canada. There is great demand in Canada too,'' the Indian official said.

According to the chairman, Indian domestic demand in 2004 was about 200 metric tonnes and, while it is likely this number would have increased substantially since then, the country would have a lot to export very soon.
chaanakya
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Re: Mining & Processing

Post by chaanakya »

Oceans, the new theatre for India-China competition; both countries have announced oil exploration plans in other’s waters
On July 11, the International Seabed Authority (ISA) allowed exploration for polymetallic sulphides by China Ocean Minerals Resources Research and Development Association (COMRA). The development sent shockwaves across the Indian government. The thing is, India could have done any number of such exploratory activities. India has received exploratory rights by the ISA for a large number of blocks. But Indian inaction has meant that a number of these blocks have had to be surrendered to the ISA. India still retains a number of blocks in the Indian Ocean. India cannot object to China obtaining mining rights in the Indian Ocean, particularly as India has itself neglected its concessions.

Obviously, keeping in mind China's swift moves into the Indian Ocean, the government last month released its surveys of the sea-bed on Indian territorial waters. The surveys by the Geological Survey of India (GSI) shows the presence of heavy deposits of ilmenite, rutile, zircon, sillimanite, monazite and garnet off the east coast, as well as off Kerala and Tamil Nadu. The GSI has also conducted reconnaissance surveys to identify potential areas for Ocean Thermal Energy Conversion (OTEC) off Andaman and Nicobar Islands.

Meanwhile, China is getting ready to square off with India in the South China Sea. In an opinion piece in Xinhua, China asked India to wise up and "refrain" from moves in the South China Sea, where China retains "absolute sovereignty". "For countries outside the region, we hope they will respect and support countries in the region to solve this dispute through bilateral channels," the Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson said while responding to a question concerning ONGC's plans to explore in two offshore oil blocks in South China Sea.
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Re: Mining & Processing

Post by Prem »

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB1000142 ... 84988.html
India Cabinet Approves New Mining Bill
NEW DELHI – The Indian cabinet Friday approved the draft of a law that seeks to attract investments in mining by simplifying rules and smoothening land acquisitions through higher compensation to people displaced, but industry executives said some of the proposals were negative. Inadequate compensation and the fear of loss of livelihood have often lead to violent protests by people displaced by mining and related industries, blocking acquisitions of land for several projects including of South Korean steel major POSCO
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Re: Mining & Processing

Post by Pratyush »

Neshant
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Re: Mining & Processing

Post by Neshant »

Meanwhile, China is getting ready to square off with India in the South China Sea. In an opinion piece in Xinhua, China asked India to wise up and "refrain" from moves in the South China Sea, where China retains "absolute sovereignty". "For countries outside the region, we hope they will respect and support countries in the region to solve this dispute through bilateral channels," the Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson said while responding to a question concerning ONGC's plans to explore in two offshore oil blocks in South China Sea.
but then they are in POK financing this & that.
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Re: Mining & Processing

Post by Pratyush »

Coal losses: How they’re dimming the wattage of India’s power industry
It’s pretty shocking to say the least. Even as consumers and businesses across various states struggle with painful electricity blackouts because power companies are running out of fuel supplies, the government admitted that up to 25 percent of the output of Coal India, the country’s monopoly coal producer, might be lost annually because of corruption, inefficiency and low productivity.

Production could increase 15 percent if theft was reduced and another 10-15 percent could be added through higher productivity, Coal Minister Sriprakash Jaiswal said, according to a report in The Economic Times.

The revelation comes at a time when average coal stocks at 86 power plants have dwindled to just seven days-worth, according to the Central Electricity Authority.

Thermal (mainly coal-fired) power generation accounted for 47 percent of the total power generated between April and September this year, according to a report by CLSA.

That’s what makes this 25 percent loss due to pilferage and low productivity so serious.

At the moment, the whole power sector in India is in such a mess. And consumers – businesses, agriculture and households – are paying the price. Or more precisely, will be forced to pay higher prices soon — pun intended.

Coal-using power-generating companies have almost no fuel to generate electricity, while several electricity transmission and distribution companies have little money to pay for their purchases because of the mismatch between the cost of supplies and customer tariff rates.

Coal production has stagnated primarily because of a lack of environmental clearances and inadequate facilities to transport coal from the mine to power producers.Reuters

In the case of Coal India itself, output is down 8 percent from a year ago in the September-ending quarter, while dispatches are down 5 percent. Employees, who contribute to nearly 10 percent of the company’s production, have been on strike for more than a month in support of a separate state of Telagana. A much larger proportion was demanding a hike in bonus which has now been resolved.

Meanwhile, coal production has stagnated primarily because of a lack of environmental clearances and inadequate facilities to transport coal from the mine to power producers.

Little wonder, the country’s coal shortage is already 80 million tonnes annually and set to rise to 600 million tones by 2017.

At the power distribution end also, things aren’t much better. Cash-strapped state electricity distribution companies are being forced to implement long periods of load-shedding or buy very expensive power at spot prices. Of course, even at this level, up to 25 percent of electricity is lost due to transmission and distribution losses, pilferage, illegal use, etc.

Even worse, another 14 gigawatts (GW) of power capacity based on domestic coal output is expected to start operating over the next 12 months. That means the coal — and power — shortage is expected to intensify.


Oh wait, there’s more bad news. A recent Indian Express expose also pointed out that in addition to the problems the coal industry is facing, we can add one more issue to the list: corruption in the government’s supply management.

According to the newspaper, a comptroller and auditor-general (CAG) report has alleged the power ministry allowed Reliance Power to “unduly benefit” by changing coal licence norms to allow the company to divert surplus coal to its other power projects.

The decision, the report alleged, did not provide any benefit to consumers but would have allowed Reliance Power to earn higher power tariffs of Rs 2.45 per unit from its 4,000 (megawatt) MW Chitrangi project compared with the Rs 1.19 per unit for Sasan, for which the coal mine was allotted. The report said the ministry gave an “undue benefit” of Rs 1.20 lakh crore — calculated over the next 25 years — to Reliance Power in the ultra-mega power projects (UMPPs) at Sasan in Madhya Pradesh and Tilaiya in Jharkhand.

What does all this prove? Just this: so much can be fixed in the coal and power industry with a well-thought out set of reforms, including a hike in tariffs. It’s not just about a shortage in supply, what is available can also be vastly better utilised. Yet state — and federal — governments have a penchant for twiddling their thumbs until things reach crisis point, even as sweaty and weary consumers wait helplessly for the lights to come back on.

Is the government listening?
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Re: Mining & Processing

Post by ManishH »

Making rare earths more common
India is a rank outsider when it comes to owning and producing strategic mineral and metal resources. ... Lack of access to best-technology practices due to restrictive regimes, coupled with the larger problem of a protectionist environment that did not incentivise innovation, meant that critical strategic industries — nuclear, space, defence and communications — depended on high-technology imports which got progressively more difficult for largely non-economic reasons. Meanwhile, over the years, diverse applications of these minerals, metals and compounds have turned them into imperatives for cutting-edge industry innovation, besides their indispensable utility to strategic sectors.
...
China’s relentless quest to dominate the world of mining, and its insatiable hunger to secure more reserves by owning mines well beyond its borders. And, specifically, the unsettling fact for other powers is the almost complete control Beijing has achieved over the supply of strategic minerals, metals and rare earth compounds. For instance, it caters to 60 per cent of world’s demand for rare earths and controls 90 per cent of the supply. It’s among the top three producers of 10 out of the 12 strategic minerals and metals Indian planners have put in this category. And over the past few years, it has outpriced well-established players from the business
...
It is in this context and backdrop that India is making its first foray. Bunching strategic minerals, metals and rare earths into a single basket, the mining working group for the Twelfth Plan (2012-17) has for the first time suggested setting up a national body in two years’ time with a corpus of Rs 500 crore to source strategic minerals, metals and rare earths ... It also calls for an inter-ministerial group along with industry stakeholders to identify countries with which bilateral agreements can be signed urgently to “for securing the supply of strategic minerals.”

Establishment of an Indian competence network for strategic minerals and metals with all stakeholders, after a proper study in the first two years of India’s market potential, exploration levels and other factors.
...
. While the global demand for rare earths fell marginally to about 96,500 tonnes in 2009 due to the economic crisis, the increased emphasis on clean technology across all industries, driven by the climate change debate, has shot up demand estimates to 1,97,000 tonnes in 2015, which could outstrip supply levels.
...
Now, India holds 16 per cent of the world’s beach-sand mineral reserves but its production is only 6-7 per cent of the global production.
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