Speculations About The Mining Ban Being Uplifted In Tamil Nadu

Speculations About The Mining Ban Being Uplifted In Tamil Nadu

Recently there have been a couple of reports that are inferring that the mining ban implemented in Tamil Nadu for heavy mineral mining may be uplifted in the next month. The ban was put into action last year in August when there were allegations put up against certain private heavy mineral mining companies for mining of wrong minerals.

However, there are constant inspections by government agencies that are held all year round, which clearly indicate that there were no illegal activities reported by these authorities. Also, the Government does not give permission for private companies to extract any other mineral other than garnet, ilmenite, zircon and rutile. Other minerals like monazite are not mined by private companies because of the radioactive properties of the mineral.

The misconceptions arise because people are unaware of the quintessential information about what this industry about and how greatly it impacts the economy. Therefore, whenever there are any allegations, even if they are false, they are highly likely to be believed because the industry perspective is so.

The yearlong ban on mining activities has deeply disturbed the business prospects of the industry. The recent news articles on The Economic Times, The Hindu, The Hindu Business Line, The Financial Express, Tamilnadu everyday and Business Standard have brought out a ray of hope for the mining ban to be uplifted very soon.

The According to The Economic Times news story, which was published on June 3, 2014, stated that the leading industry player, VV Minerals, owned by S. Vaikundarajan feels that the ban on mining activities has led to the unemployment of 50,000 people in Tamil Nadu.

The Financial Express news story also had similar facts, some of them were about how the top players like VV Minerals, India had to shut down their mining operations since the ban was implemented, which left around 15,000 employees of VV Minerals unemployed.

The Business Standard news story included a quote of the Managing Partner of VV Minerals, V. Subramanian stating that the country is loosing forex amounting to at least Rs 10,000 crore a year because of the ban. And, Tamilnadu Everyday also carried facts about the Indian beach mineral mining industry like how VV Mineral is the country’s largest mining manufacturer and exporter of garnet and ilmenite. And, Tamil Nadu is the largest contributor to the industry with about 85% of the total exports of 6.5 lakh tonens of garnet. Also, 75% of the beach mineral mining in Tamil Nadu is conducted by VV Mineral.

All of the news stories included the following lines said by Mr. V. Subramanian:  Beach mining is ‘replenishable’; in the absence of mining, such minerals are being carried away by sea waves and as a result, Sri Lanka, located further down, is reaping rich benefit at the cost of Indian industry  The ban on mining is impacting Indian firms' reputation as trusted partners with customers overseas. It is causing

an annual loss of around Rs 300 crore to the state exchequer as well  The reopening of the mines could attract some few hundred crore of investment in the sector in Tamil Nadu The Hindu published a news story on May, 30, 2014, where it was clearly stated that even the Madras High Court Bench has ordered the government-appointed special team, probing the alleged irregularities in beach and sand mining in southern districts, to submit a detailed report to the Chief Secretary within a month.

Hopefully, the investigations will be over and the industry will restart with its operations as soon as possible.

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