Centre to publish country’s first ratings report for mines

Come December, the Centre will publish country’s first rating report for mines. Balvinder Kumar, Secretary, the Union Ministry of Mines, said on Wednesday that the ‘Star Rating’ system for the operating mines will be published by December 15.

“The first rating report for mines will be published by December 15”, he said at the 13th Global Mining Summit organised by the CII.

The Mines Secretary said following Mines and Minerals (Development and Regulation) Act amendment, the Government facilitated 17 auctions of 55 leases in nine States fetching Rs 70,000 crore.

“Another Rs 47,000 crore is likely to be fetched from auctions in the near future,” Kumar pointed out at a Plenary Session.

However, the union mines minister also pointed out, the Indian mining sector is expected to expand the country’s GDP by 1 per cent in the next financial year with the overall mining sector on a growth path.

A mobile phone application was lunched to detect the illegal mining.

The Mining Ministry has also introducing a digital system, created by IBM and software prepared by Wipro, for the mining sector.  

Kumar was taking at the sideline Indian Mining and Machinery Exhibition organised by CII. He said the country’s mining sector grew nine per cent last year and this year we are expecting it to grow at a higher rate.

The mining industry contributes 2.2 per cent to 2.5 per cent of the GDP but going by the GDP of the total industrial sector it contributes around 10 per cent to 11 per cent.

Kumar also said while iron ore mining grew 21 per cent, bauxite mining grew 27 per cent and chromite mining grew 35 per cent in 2016. In the first seven months of this fiscal, production of iron ore increased 25 per cent and production of other minerals are also on the growth path.

“We expect that the mining sector will be able to expand the country’s GDP by one per cent,” Kumar added.

Sunil Kumar Barnwal, Secretary, Department of Industry, Mines & Geology of Jharkhand government, made a presentation to highlight what the Jharkhand is working to re-organise its mining sector to attract more investments and introduced transparency and ease of doing business.