Debasish Acharya
Post news network
Bhubaneswar, Jan 25: The state government is hopeful of receiving nod from the Supreme Court for opening five more mines in Keonjhar district which are currently non-operational, an official of the Directorate of Mines said.
“The apex court may give nod for revival of 5 more mines in Keonjhar district in the near future. The mines for which we are hopeful of getting nod are Mallory, R P Sao, Gandhamardhan, H G Pandya and Jilling ,” the official said. Talking on mining revenue, the official said the state has set a target to garner around Rs 6,000 crore of revenue from mining sector during this fiscal.
“The state has set a revenue target of Rs 6,000 crore against a collection of Rs 5,300 crore achieved during last financial year. We have already collected about Rs 4,056 crore by the end of December quarter of this fiscal year,” the official said adding a total of 165 MT of minerals had been dispatched as on December 2015. The state had dispatched about 141 MT of mineral last fiscal.
On the status of production of minerals, he said the state has seen a production of 164 MT of minerals by December, 2015 against 138 MT produced during the same period of last fiscal. These minerals were extracted from 128 mines in the state. Despite sound growth seen in production of minerals, revenue realizations were lower due to subdued pricing environment of key ores. “The Collection of royalty will not be at par with the increase in dispatches because mineral prices have come down significantly. We are less hopeful to meet the target as it will largely depend on the volume of sales,” the official added.
