The Centre has asked the Goa government to immediately restrict all activities regarding removal of minerals from dumpsकचरे का मैदान located outside the mining lease areas. Mines Ministry in letter to Goa government, said Goa government should immediately restrict all activities for removal of mineral from the dumps located outside the lease areas, till an appropriate mechanism is evolved .

The directive comes close on heels of Justice M B Shah Commission, which probed into the issue of illegal mining of iron ore and manganese in Goa, recommending that dumping of minerals or any subsequent work should be done only with proper permission and approval of the Indian Bureau of Mines and clearance from the concerned state government department. As per the Goa government,there are 37 mining reject dumps on revenue land, majority of which belong to big mining firms including Dempo, Sesa Goa and Fomento. 

Earlier, the one-man enquiry commission went into the issue of illegal mining in the state and also recommended that state government should upload information about mining leases on their websites to introduce transparency in the sector.

The Commission in its report also suggested that mining leases be granted through public auction to reduce corruption.

 Centre today asked geoscientists to fulfill their responsibility
to the society by evolving new ways to enhance economic growth and development.

Speaking at the 51st meeting of Central Geological Programming Board CGPBin New Delhi, the Mines Secretary Mr Vishwapati Trivedi also urged the public and private sector to play a crucial role in research and development which is extremely important for promotion of science. He observed, that while public investment over the Research and Development had been growing every year during the 11th Plan, for the private sector it had remained low. 

The Secretary said that the mining and mineral sectors need innovation in the search, beneficiation crushing and separating ore into valuable substances or waste by any of a variety of techniquesand exploitation of mineral resources,particularly those are deep-seated. Mr Trivedi also said that efforts should be made to increase Research and Development investments from the present 0.9 per cent to two per cent of the Gross Domestic
Products.

The Centre today confirmed that Andhra Pradesh has the highest Monazite mineral reserves in the country. The Department of Atomic Energy has explored about 34 lakh tonnes of its reserves in the State. These reserves contain over three lakh thirty-six thousand tonnes of thorium oxide which is used in Fast Breeder Reactors

Afghanistan has become the first country in the world to have its surface minerals mapped from the air. About 70 percent of the area of country has been mapped using an advanced remote sensing technique known as hyperspectral imaging. The project was led by the U.S. Geological Survey in close collaboration with NASA, Afghanistan’s Ministry of Mines and Afghanistan’s Geological Survey organization.

The survey revealed a substantial variety of rare-earth mineral deposits, in addition to more information about iron, copper, and gold deposits in the country. Releasing the findings of the imaging survey of Afghanistan in Washington recently Afghan Ambassador to the US, Eklil Ahmad Hakimi hailed the use of hyperspectral imaging technology for providing more in-depth, credible information to further build Afghanistan’s growing minerals market. 

AIR Kabul correspondent reports, the U.S. Geographical Survey has mapped nearly 70 percent of the Afghanistan using hyper-spectral imaging technology. In this technique airborne hyperspectral sensors collect light reflected from the earth. Different materials reflect different lights and the minerals can be easily identified due to their unique light spectra. 

This helps in identifying the composition of materials at the surface, such as minerals, vegetation, mountains and man-made structures. In addition this technology allows large geographic areas to be mapped quickly and accurately. It can also be used in forcasting natural hazards, agricultural conditions and infrastructure development. 

The hyper-spectral images of Afghanistan clearly show the enormous size and variety of its mineral resources which can make the country a world leader in the minerals sector.

A Parliamentary Panel has advocated to promote export of agricultural products. The report of the panel on Commerce Ministry presented in the Parliament yesterday, also urged the government to avoid export of iron ore or similar resources which are scarce and limited. The panel strongly feels that efforts should be made to access the technology to process and value-add the iron ore fines. It said that countries like China have been doing the same for several years.

The panel headed by Shanta Kumar has pointed out that China despite having huge iron ore reserves, has been preserving them for future. The report said, China has only been importing the iron ore, processing and value adding it, and selling it at a premium to the world. The panel considered that iron ore is the wealth for the future and said that inititatives should be taken to attain technology to value-add the mineral resources and export the finished products.