The Indian iron ore mining industry will seek a cap on the number of mines for allocation for captive mining by steel companies to promote conservation and more efficient use of the raw material, a member of the Federation of India Mineral Industries (FIMI) said on Friday, August 18.
The official said that the number of iron ore blocks reserved for captive mining by steel producers should be limited since most steel companies extract ore as per requirement of their respective blast furnaces and this leads to sub-optimal mining from the blocks and other grades of ore are not utilized from the captive mine. He pointed out that commercial miners optimize extraction of all grades and sizes of ore and are able to sell various grades at competitive pricing.
A single end-use plant linked to a specific captive iron ore block also limits the capability of the captive miner to deploy higher and technological mining practices, the official said.
According to the FIMI official, now that the government has set up a panel to review and revise the National Mineral Policy 2008, the iron ore mining industry will submit its proposal to limit the reservations of blocks for captive mining as the goal of the new policy will be conservation and sustainable mining.