There is an absolute and perhaps deliberate camouflage of the reality of Goa returning to mining by the Goa Chief Minister and his two mining administration babus, the Mines Secretary and Director of Mines. Their continuous promises of mining restarting in Goa in a jiffy, is like opening swank malls and departmental stores in a desolate desert.
International prices have sunk to a record low, the main buyers have their supplies sorted out from other countries and steel manufacturers in India, in utter desperation are actually importing ore, when millions of tons are lying in the country. To top it all, the mining giants, who are basically international traders, were lobbying to get export duty on ore slashed, completely against what the national mood under Prime Minister Modi is. The Goa exporters could have been pragmatic and seen reality by investing in beneficiation by getting the pollution control board to clear beneficiation plant projects, and selling the ores to cater to domestic steel plants.
In fact Chief Minister Parsekar has actually lost favour with the centre and specifically with the Prime Minister for constantly pushing for export duty reduction. While that has happened because of some backroom lobbying and the presence of Defence Minister Parrikar, the PM still wants Goan ore to be diverted almost entirely for domestic use. Less than a month ago as Mr Modi spoke to a senior member of a mining body from Goa, in his office, he remarked in hindi “Aapke chief minister bar bar export duty kam karane chale aate hain. Unhe boliye ki make in India hamara irada hain” (Your Chief Minister comes here all the time to get us to reduce export duty. Please tell him that ‘make in India’ is my policy)
The Chief Minister, who is the Mines minister, has himself admitted that mining files do not come to him, and he is barely coming to grips with the nuances and complexities of the issue. The men who know Mines Secretary Pawan Kumar Sain and Director Mines Prasanna Acharya, have been regularly batting for the mining giants and doing their bidding only, almost to the extent of reporting to them. The shocking manner of issuing 31 lease renewals on the day the mining ordinance was issued on January 12, which effectively ended the life of all leases not renewed till then, but saved the leases of giants, illegally renewed on January 12 showed how the offices of the Mines director had become an extension of the boardroom of the major mining majors. Little have they realised how much harm they have caused.
Certain facts have been deliberately hidden. The collective demand from Karnataka and coastal steel units is about 25-30 million tons of Fe 62% concentrates. Goan ore is ideally suited for this since its granulometry of low alumina and high silica makes it possible to beneficiate it. The bottleneck lies with the Goa Pollution Control Board. The effort should therefore be to ensure that the GSPCB is satisfied that these plants can be set up according to standards set so that Goan ore can be entirely used for domestic consumption.
With low international prices being forecast, chasing the great export dream will be a nightmare. But mining giants would like to renew their leases and wait it out for years, till the export market improves rather than sell domestically. They have enough cash reserves.
If mining activity is to restart and get people’s lives and livelihoods going again, the government has to take decisions as suggested here. If it thinks that major mining giants are going to take the initiative to do this when the market is at an all time low will be living in a fool’s paradise. But perhaps that is what some officials have chosen to do.
