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The Indian Bureau of Mines (IBM), a subordinate office of the Ministry of Mines, inspected 1367 mines and pointed out 1445 cases of violations during the second and third quarter of this fiscal. Mines Control and Conservation of Minerals Division of IBM achieved compliance in 597 cases, thereby ensuring scientific mining practices in the mines. Rest of the violation cases are in the process of rectification. This information was given by the Controller General of IBM, Shri S. S. Das in a review meeting taken recently by the Mines Secretary, Shri C. D. Arha. During the period, 51 prosecutions were launched on serious violations.
During these six months, 347 mining plans / schemes were approved to carry out mining operations in a scientific manner observing all statutory requirements and 73 plans were rejected. Besides, 41 ore dressing investigations, 24,453 chemical analysis and 1,241 mineralogical determinations were completed. The important investigations completed cover iron-ore, copper-ore, chromite-ore, manganese-ore, gold-ore, limestone, rock phosphate and fly ash.
The Controller General briefed that during the period six technical consultancy assignments were completed and the report submitted to the parties. It also completed 7 mining research assignments on geo-technical, environmental and basic mining aspects including productivity. IBM collects data on mines and minerals and disseminates it through various technical and statistical publications. During the period, 3 important publications were released. The information is sent to the Ministry and other organizations for their reference and use.
The Secretary desired that IBM should maintain complete transparency in processing of applications and mining plans displaying their status on website and their updatation every week. He advised random checks of the processing of the applications and mining plans by the senior officials. He asked IBM to accelerate its mineral beneficiation studies and to ensure that the allocated funds should be properly utilized.
DS/SCH
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