The Goa Chief Minister Pramod Sawant announced to the legislative house on Wednesday that the state’s iron ore mining activities, which ceased in 2018, would resume by November of this year.
In the past, the coastal state’s main source of income was from the mining sector. After 88 mining licenses were annulled by the Supreme Court in 2018, it ceased to operate.
During the current Monsoon session of the assembly, Sawant informed the House in response to the mining department’s requests for grants that nine blocks of iron ore had already been auctioned. According to him, the state government has received Rs 45 crore from the sale of the nine plots.
The Goa government announced in December of last year that the first round of mining block auctions had been completed, with four businesses acquiring the right to harvest ore from various mineral-rich areas of the coastal state.
Three of these four blocks will begin operations in the months of November and December of this year, according to Sawant. When these four mining blocks begin operations, he said that the state would get extra funds in the range of Rs 300-350 crore in the form of concessional fees.
The state minister allayed concerns that successful bidders of these blocks might use equipment and labor from outside Goa. The state government, according to him, would make sure that these mining firms use equipment and labor from the area.
According to Sawant, the state government would speed up the process of providing environmental clearances. The chief minister said that the plan to put the state’s current iron ore stockpiles up for auction would be revealed the following month. He informed the House that the state now has dumps holding 700 million tonnes of iron ore.