Kolkata: In a significant achievement in Marine Mineral Exploration, Geological Survey of India (GSI) has stumbled upon huge lime mud deposits off Gujarat and Maharashtra coast.
The officers of GSI's Marine & Coastal Survey (MCS) Division located at Mangalore has discovered about 72,000 million tonne of lime mud resource, which they feel is a probable solution to the scarcity of high grade limestone in the country.
"India has a large resource of limestone on land, but 97 percent of it is of cement grade and only 3 percent is of steel and chemical grade. Our industrial requirement for steel, blast furnace and chemical grade limestone are met from imports. We are hopeful that this discovery will help our country to cut down on imports of limestone for steel, pharmaceutical and other industries," said Dr Dinesh Gupta, Director General of GSI at a media conference on Thursday. Officials from GSI's MCS division, located at Mangalore, joined through video conference.
The lime mud resource has been estimated from an area of 6603 sqkm of Arabian Sea with its location at 80-100 km from coast at 55 to 120 m water depth. It may be mentioned that Carbonate rock like limestone and dolomite are important raw materials for the cement, paint, glass and steel industries.
Bench scale beneficiation and agglomeration studies carried out at Regional Mineral Processing Laboratory, Indian Bureau of Mines (IBM), Bangalore to understand the industrial utility of offshore lime mud found its suitability for cement and filler industries, flux in blast furnaces in steel plants and steel melting shops.
DG, GSI also announced the discovery of massive marine sand (construction sand) deposits off Kerala coast.
"There is an acute shortage of sand in Kerala and the construction industries in the state are looking for alternative sources. At present, the only alternative available is M-Sand (Manufactured Sand) which is a crushed product of hard rocks. This reserve of good quality sand will immensely benefit construction industry in the state," a senior GSI official said. More than 745 million tonne of sand has been estimated off Ponnani, Chavakkad, Alleppey and Kollam at four blocks off Kerala coast.