FIMI seeks govt support for iron ore export from Karnataka

1-Oct-2018

Apex mineral body FIMI Thursday sought government support to open up Karnataka’s iron ore-rich mining industry, which cannot export the mineral due to a Supreme Court ruling. In this regard, Federation of Indian Mineral Industries (FIMI) said it has also written letters to Ministries of Steel, Mines, Commerce and the NITI Aayog.

India has set up a target to ramp up its steel-making capacity to 300 million tonne (MT) by 2030-31, FIMI said, adding that in order to achieve this aim, the country would also need proportionate quantity of raw materials like iron ore and coal.

“Iron ore is abundantly available in India. Going by the latest United Nations classification framework, India has proven reserve of 28 billion tonnes of iron ore… and Karnataka is one of the major iron ore producing states. At present, it (Karnataka) cannot export iron ore due to a Supreme Court ruling,” FIMI said in a statement.

The body said it requests the government to take immediate steps so that iron ore export can take place.

This way Karnataka will also be able to contribute to the 300 million tonne steel production target as most of the steel plants are based out of Karnataka, FIMI said.

Source: PTI