MINERAL

Two leading mineral scientists from Orissa expressed concern that the mineral boom in the country had helped only a few individuals who had made quick money by indiscriminately exporting iron ore.

Participating at the Industry Research and Development meet organised in Bangalore by the Department of Mines and Geology and the Bhuvaneswar-based Institute of Minerals and Materials Technology, on Tuesday, scientist G.V. Rao of the institute termed indiscriminate exports as “a great mistake”. He asked for limiting the exports to preserve the mineral wealth for future use.

P.S.R. Reddy, head of the mineral processing department of the institute, also endorsed his colleague’s views and said there should be value-addition to the ore before exporting it.

He pointed out that India was producing 175 million tonnes of iron ore a year. Of this, 100 million tonnes was being exported to countries like China and Japan; the remaining 75 million tonnes was being used for domestic consumption. Of this, production of steel was 40 million tonnes.

But the country needed 120 million tonnes of steel by 2020 which would mean that there was a need to produce 400 million tonnes of iron ore. Even if the country manages to supply this much of iron ore, its mineral resources would get depleted within 30 years, he noted.

Efficient use of ores

Hence, there was a dire need to increase the availability of ore by adopting the technology to extract even low-grade ores, he suggested. The country should also focus on extracting iron from secondary sources like iron-bearing sands, red mud and ore waste dumps, he said.

Karnataka Industries Commissioner K. S. Prabhakar said China was an intelligent country as it was preserving its iron ore by importing from other countries like India. “A day may come when we have to import steel from China if this continues,” he cautioned and stressed the need for optimal utilisation of the ore.

‘Waste not’

Dr. Rao cautioned against selling the waste dumps of ore. Remarking that “today’s waste is tomorrow’s resource”, he asked the industrialists to adopt the technology to extract metal content event from waste dumps.