Team News Riveting
Raipur, June 21
MOIL, formerly known as Manganese Ore (India) Limited, had received environmental clearance for the Gumgaon and Khodegaon Manganese Underground (UG) mine.
The mine would be the 12th of the Miniratna Company and the first new underground mine since inception. MOIL was originally incorporated as Manganese Ore (India) Limited in 1962. Subsequently, the name of the Company was changed from Manganese Ore (India) Limited to MOIL Limited during the financial year 2010-11.
An area of 814.71 Ha. was reserved by Maharashtra Government in favour of MOIL for prospecting of manganese ore in Nagpur and Bhandara districts.
After exploration and requisite clearances, application for environment clearance (EC) was submitted in respect of 126.84 HA. area, which is adjacent to MOIL’s Gumgaon mine. MOIL has received a letter from the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change (MoEF & CC) communicating the grant of environment clearance (EC) of 1.02 lakh MTPA (including mineral rejects of 0.05 lakh MTPA).
As the resources identified are available at a depth of more than 200 meters from the surface, underground mining will have to be resorted to. In view of this, MOIL is going ahead with purchase of land for the mine and getting other statutory clearances. In the meantime, steps for sinking of a new shaft shall be taken., the MOIL said in a regulatory filing.
At present, MOIL operates 11 mines, seven located in the Nagpur and Bhandara districts of Maharashtra and four in the Balaghat district of Madhya Pradesh. All these mines are about a century old, the Balaghat Mine being the largest.
MOIL fulfils about 50 per cent of the total requirement of dioxide ore in India. At present, the annual production is around 1.1 million tonne that is expected to grow in the coming years.
