Auctioning only for new iron ore leases: Parikkar

Goa Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar on Saturday said that the government will resort to auctioning of new iron ore leases,if at all, in the future.

Responding to a question over legality and prudence of his decision to go for renewal for iron ore leases, Mr. Parrikar, at a press conference reiterated that he was going by the provisions of Section 8(3) of the Mines and Minerals(Development and Regulations) Act, 1957 and that a maximum 50 leases would be renewed by the government.

He said that people have to understand that many mining firms had heavily invested in this business over the years.

Mr. Parrikar sought to explain the difference between leasing of coal mines on auction basis and Goa’s iron ore mining leases.

He admitted that the Supreme Court has held that all mining leases in the State of Goa had expired in 2007. Consequently, no mining operations can be carried out until renewal or execution of mining lease deeds by the State Government.

However, tracing the history of Goa's mining, he said that as back as in 1929, the first mining concession was granted in Goa by erstwhile Portuguese. While in 1987, 595 mining concessions were converted into leases as per Mining Concessions Abolition Act and lessees were given time of 18 months for first renewal. During the second renewal in 2007, only one lease was renewed by the State Government and rest of the leases were operating on deemed permission, which have been struck down by the Court.

While there are only around 80-85 operative mines in Goa, the government from time to time had cancelled around 369 leases. He did not rule out the possibility of the government reviving some of these and resorting to auctioning if they are to be leased out.

As for the present, he reiterated that those of the leases which have no major violations only will be renewed.

He, however, cautioned that all this will be guided by the Supreme Curt imposed cap on extraction of ore to 20 million tonnes annually or the State, which also would mean cap for individual lease, to be prescribed by the government.