The Federation of Indian Mineral Industries (FIMI) has expressed its worries over various challenges, ranging from red tape to the declining prices of mineral commodities, environment and social concerns that had resulted in a huge decline of mineral production in the recent past.

The FIMI has stated that the mineral production had slipped from Rs 2,85,761 crore in 2012-13 to Rs 2,27,000 crore in 2013-14. On the eve of the three-day annual ‘Mining, Exploration Convention and Trade Show’ in Bengaluru, starting from Thursday, FIMI President H Noor Ahmed said that the Centre has aimed at increasing the contribution of the mining industry towards the GDP from 2 per cent to 6 per cent, which translates to Rs 6.25 lakh crore. This target is backed by ‘Make In India’, Digital India and Skill India.

Ahmed welcomed the recent announcement about the revival of the gold recovery operations at Kolar that are aimed at recovery of gold worth Rs 25,000 crore from old tailing dump and the fast-tracking of regional airborne surveys to locate deep seated mineral deposits through global tenders. Also, the extension of the validity of mining leases to 50 years, without any intermediate renewal requirements, cutting the red tape to a great extent, was a welcome move.

However, the airborne survey of the deep seated mineral blocks will cost an estimated Rs 4,000 crore, much beyond the capacity of the National Mineral Exploration Trust to fund the activity, for which, allocation of funds from the annual budget will be required, the FIMI president pointed out.

He added that while the country is abundantly endowed with iron ore and coal deposits, it still ends up importing these minerals, with coal imports being almost 20-25 per cent of the requirement. Last year, 200 million tonnes of coal was imported. He said that the leases for at least 110 non-captive mines are due to expire by March 31, 2020, but there is no provision for renewal of the leases and they automatically revert back to the state for re-auction.