Indian government-run iron ore pellet producer KIOCL Limited has sought the intervention of the federal ministry of steel to commence mining at the Devadari iron ore block in the southern state of Karnataka, sources said on Tuesday, August 29.
According to the sources, to commence mining, KIOCL will need to enter forest land and has therefore sought the intervention of the central ministry of steel, seeking that the latter takes up the issue with the Forest Department of the Karnataka government.
KIOCL obtained statutory clearances, such as a mining plan from the Indian Bureau of Mines, in March, 2018, as well as environment and forest clearances from the central ministry of environment, forests and climate change (MoEF & CC) in August 2021 and December 2022, respectively.
Consent for establishment from Karnataka State Pollution Control Board was secured in July 2022 for Devadari Iron Ore Mine. A mining lease was agreed with the director of mines and geology of the Karnataka government in January 2023, for 388 hectares for a period of 50 years for iron ore and manganese ore mining.
However, because of issues of entering forest land to commence mining operations, the KIOCL project has remained in a logjam, the sources said.
It may be noted that the company’s 3 million mt per year capacity pellet plant has had to be periodically shut down owing to the shortage of iron ore fines availability. Recently, the company floated a tender to source 1.5 million mt of fines from domestic or overseas suppliers to feed the plant.