TEAM HERALD
PANJIM: Recommending that all illegal dumps be forfeited to government, the third report of the MB Shah commission of inquiry into illegal mining has argued that dumps are actually production done from mines, but when these exceeded EC limits, or mining plan limits, were shown as dump production. “Production from dumps is actually proxy production,” Justice Shah Commission said.
According to state figures there are estimated 750 million tones of dumps and most of these are supposed to be low-grade ore. However, the report points out that no real quantity and quality assessment of dumps lying within the State were done by the Government.
The report has pointed out that “as per details given by the Customs Department and Ports Department most of the iron ore exported was of the grade of 52% to 62%. This quality of ore may not be available in the lying dumps. So, most of the production shown from dumps and export may have actually been mined from the existing mining leases only.”
The report goes on to say that it is observed in many cases there is no sign of dump working. So possibilities of showing proxy dump production cannot be ruled out. And to verify the proxy production, vis-a-vis dump working the measurements of the pits are required to be taken for voluminous measurements on the lines of the exercise carried out by Central Bureau of Investigation, Bengaluru, for some mines in Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh.
