India’s ministry of environment, forests and climate change (MoEFCC) has relaxed the norms for the granting of environmental clearances in the case of expansion projects undertaken by operational iron ore, limestone, manganese and bauxite mines, a government official said on Friday, November 1.
The official said that the relaxed norms for granting of environmental clearances will be valid only for those mines that have been rated “5-Star” as per the grading of mines undertaken by the ministry of mines.
A 5-star rated mine which has already been granted environmental clearance based on a public hearing conducted at the project site will be able to expand capacity by up to 20 percent, the official elaborated.
However, the expansion project should not include any mining lease area for which mining permission had already been granted and the expansion planned will have to be only in ‘virgin’ areas.
However, the miner will still need to prepare an environmental management plan for the expansion project, he added.