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Jun 19, 2023

Iron ore reserves in Goa pegged at 1,000 mn tonnes

Staff Reporter Panaji Amid the auctioning of iron ore blocks in the state to kick-start the mining industry, Goa’s iron ore reserves have been pegged at 1,000 million tonnes by the Comptroller and

Staff Reporter

Panaji

Amid the auctioning of iron ore blocks in the state to kick-start the mining industry, Goa’s iron ore reserves have been pegged at 1,000 million tonnes by the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) of India.

The audit report on Natural Resource Account of Goa for the year 2021 measures the state’s closing stock of iron ore as on March 31, 2021, at 263.7 million tonnes. The report gives an account of the state’s mineral and energy resources.

The CAG report has flagged the absence of proper records in the directorate of mines and geology (DMG) for both, major as well as minor minerals, which, it said, is coming in the way of estimating the state’s mineral resources.

It has said the state has never undertaken any assessment of the available iron ore resources and the quantity declared by the lessee has been adopted by the government as the available reserve. The report mentions that accounting of the mineral resources is most important, as they are non-renewable, while other energy resources get renewed naturally.

The shortcoming in the working of the DMG is the absence of records for assessment purposes, it said. “While the office of the DMG maintains various registers for monitoring purposes, timely filing of monthly and annual returns by lessees is lacking. There are delays in the compilation of data for ascertaining the royalty or dead rent and other receivables such as fines, fees and penalties,” says thereport.

It flags government inaction on illegal mining. Although there were ten cases of illegal mining detected by the DMG, no action was taken, it says.

The CAG has recommended compliance of rules by the lessees. “An automated system for capturing the data of dispatch of resources should be developed. All data pertaining to the process of grant of mining leases, vehicle movement, trip sheets etc should be captured electronically at source,” the CAG report has suggested.

As per the report, the natural resources of the state comprise three major minerals (iron ore, manganese and bauxite) and three minor minerals (basalt, laterite and sand).

About 80% of the iron ore deposits are fines and the remaining 20% comprise lumps. The northern block deposits are richer in terms of quantity and quality of ore. As of March 31, 2021, the closing balances of manganese and bauxite deposits stand at 1.1 million tonnes and 11.7 million tonnes, respectively.

The report is an initiative of the Government Accounting Standards Advisory Board (GASAB), under CAG India, to support the preparation of the Natural Resource Account on Mineral and Energy Resources of States.

It aims at cross-verification of revenues with the actual extraction and provides the pace for exploitation and close monitoring of illegal mining.