Mining companies seek permission to resume mining in Odisha
Several companies including Essel Mining and Sarda Mines moved the Supreme Court on Wednesday seeking permission to resume mining in Odisha.
The companies told the apex court they are losing out on business, adding thousands of workers are jobless.
"We have necessary clearances to resume mining, environmental and forest clearances have been obtained," they told the apex court.
The Supreme Court will hear their plea on February 20.
Earlier in September 21 last year, the apex court issued notice to the Centre and Odisha Government demanding a detailed reply of the iron ore sharing contract between Sarda Mines and Jindal Steel and power Limited (JSPL) within two months.
A division bench of the apex court, headed by Justice Dipak Misra and also comprising Justice C. Nagappan, sought the reply from both the Centre and Odisha Government.
Odisha to auction 2 more iron blocks
After successfully auctioning three mining blocks, the state government is going to put two more iron ore blocks - Netrabandhapahad and Kalmang (both in Sundargarh district) - under the hammer.
"The differentially global positing system (DGPS) survey, a mandatory process before putting blocks on auction, has already been completed for these two blocks. Notification for auction would be issued within the next one month," a source in the state steel and mines department said.
The Centre had earlier asked the state government to expedite the mining auction process as it was quite slow in Odisha compared to other states. Karnataka has auctioned the highest (more than seven blocks) among all states.
MoEF panel rejects clearance for Arcelor’s Saranda mine
Steel giant ArcelorMittal India’s project to mine iron and manganese over 202.35 hectares of forest in the Sal forests of Saranda, Jharkhand, has been rejected a forest clearance by an expert panel of the Ministry of Environment and Forests (MoEF). The company had planned to feed the iron to its proposed 12 metric tonnes per annum steel plant, a project pegged at Rs 50,000 crore. The Forest Advisory Committee (FAC) of the ministry took up the project for appraisal on January 10 in an urgent consultation, on directions of the Delhi High Court.
On January 9, the HC passed an order directing the FAC to consider the forest clearance issue expeditiously so that in case the project is cleared, the company could execute the mining lease before expiry on January 11.
While rejecting the proposal, the FAC said that, “any decision to allow mining leases or open up new areas in Saranda forest for mining needs to be taken after careful thought, particularly on the likely adverse effect on the ecology of the area.” It added that, “it is not desirable for the state government to assign forest land by way of lease in Saranda forest region” till the plan for sustainable mining in Saranda is finalised based on the Carrying Capacity Study by Indian Council of Forestry Research and Education and on the Integrated Wildlife Management Plan.
“Considering the facts and circumstances in the present case, it is not recommended to grant approval under Section 2 (iii) of Forest Conservation Act, 1980,” the FAC said.
Mining in Saranda forest, where the Singhbhum Elephant Reserve is notified, has been in controversy since the UPA years. The MoEF, during the tenure of former environment minister Jayanthi Natarajan, had cleared a mining project over 500 hectares of forest. The clearance had come under the scanner of Central Bureau of Investigation. It had also caused a tussle between Natarajan and her colleague Jairam Ramesh, the then Rural Development Minister, who criticised the project nod, as he was working on the Saranda Development Plan.
http://www.dnaindia.com/india/report-moef-panel-rejects-clearance-for-arcelor-s-saranda-mine-2293888
Indian Railways looks to share up ‘ backbone’ of revenue source, set to ink MOUs to boost freight traffic
Come April next year, the Indian Railways will start entering into a clutch of ‘transportation guarantee agreements’, or memorandums of understanding, to improve its faltering freight segment, the backbone of the railways’ revenue.
“Many industries such as cement, iron ore and steel have already shown interest which will give me guarantee of a certain traffic for, say, 5-10 years, and the railways will give them a guarantee to provide adequate number of wagons throughout the year as per their requirement,” said a ministry of railway requesting not to be named.
There will be traffic guarantee clause in the agreements wherein there will be a certain penalty component for both parties in case they fail on their commitment, added the official.
The national carrier has been losing traffic to both airlines and roads with its traffic receipts for the April-December 2016 period, falling 2.53% compared with same period a year-ago. While the passenger revenue target for the period was missed by 9.14%, the freight target witnessed a shortfall of 10.98%
The transporter saw its traffic receipts in April-December 2016 go down 2.53% from the Rs 1.22 lakh crore achieved during the year-ago period. In the passenger revenue segment (which accounts for about a third of the total traffic earnings), the carrier missed the target by 9.14% and in the profitable goods category the shortfall was 10.98%. The freight suffered mostly because of a tepid loading of coal and cement in the current financial year.
The railways is expecting that once these agreements are in place and the dedicated freight corridors — both eastern and western — are in place by December 2019, a combination of the two will boost freight earnings.
“We will be able to carry four times the number of containers transported now through the corridors which will 1.5-km long and double stacked, instead of 750 m and single stack now,” said the official, adding that the quicker and heavier rakes will offer competitive rates in lesser time compared to roads. “The per unit cost will come down drastically,” the official added.
Railway minister Suresh Prabhu in the 2016-17 Budget had announced that the railways will enter into long-term contracts with customers which will be beneficial for both. On the one hand, the railways will get an assured traffic and on the other, customers will benefit from low long-term tariff.
IR has already undertaken various measures to improve its freight movement and revenue numbers, including withdrawal of port congestion and busy season charges, tariff liberalisation of empty rake direction and introduction of dwarf containers, among others.
Coal contract prices hit their highest level in almost six years
Coking coal is a crucial ingredient in the steel making process but prices for the December 2016 quarter were relatively low at $US200 per tonne.
Yet figures for this year's March quarter have been locked in at $US285, a jump research analyst Gavin Wendt said, was still being driven by Chinese buyers.
"We have seen tremendous demand strength out of China, much more significant really than the market had anticipated, certainly through the later price of 2016," he said.
"There was a feeling that we would start to see Chinese demand, economic growth and Chinese activity start to tail off a little bit."
Mr Wendt attributed the continuation of such strong demand from the country to a range of issues, but outlined a drop in domestic Chinese production as the primary reason.
"Chinese authorities have tried to cut back on domestic coking coal production," he said.
"When you have a situation where China's steel production is still robust but there is less domestic coal being produced, the gap obviously has to be filled by imported coal."
Spot coking coal prices fall
Meanwhile, spot prices are almost $100 less than those of the contracts.
In the second half of 2016, spot prices for coking coal prices more than tripled to $US300 per tonne, but have since fallen back to about $US180.
However, Mr Wendt suggested those numbers could climb during future negotiations between industry stakeholders.
He believed spot prices had fallen due to discounted products as mining companies locked in new buyers.
"That will probably adjust itself when producers sit down with steel mills to talk about march quarter pricing."
The year ahead for coal
Mr Wendt was optimistic about coal production throughout 2017, and believed prices would remain strong for the first six months.
"I think we'll start the year on a very positive note and I think we'll probably see very strong prices during the first half of 2017," he said.
"As for the second half... a lot of it depends on the overall uncertainty on the international scale, [particularly] what happens in the United States.
"There is certainly talk around there of significant expansion projects and industrialisation and infrastructure spending ... how that is going to be implemented remains to be seen."
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2017-01-17/contract-coal-prices-spike-for-march-quarter/8188066
Jharkhand disaster: Miners say they warned bosses of imminent danger but were ordered back to work
Three months ago, workers at the Eastern Coalfields’ Lalmatia site in Jharkhand noticed large fissures on the surface of material excavated from the open cast mine. Their supervisors tried to report these several times to site managers, they said, but they were ignored.
“Lallu Khan, our site in-charge, complained to the management four to five times the previous month that the earth was cracking, it was unsafe to work there,” said Jamil Akhtar, who has been working as a supervisor since 2014. “But Pramod Kumar, the mine manager, Eastern Coalfields, made him restart work each time he tried to halt operations.”
On December 29, workers on the afternoon shift were conducting operations on top of the 150-metre high pile of excavated earth – higher than a 30-storey building. A little after 7 pm, the ground slid 35 metres, taking the workers and their machines with it. Lallu Khan and the other 22 workers were crushed to death by boulders and massive mounds of debris.
This is the highest number of deaths recorded in an accident in an open cast mine in India. The next day, the Union Ministry of Mines issued a statement calling the accident “unprecedented”.
FIR is filed
When asked why warnings by workers were not heeded, or why the management failed to ensure workers’ safety, Sanjay Kumar Singh, general manager in charge of Lalmatia mine for Eastern Coalfields, would not comment because of a family emergency. DK Nayak, general manager (operations), Eastern Coalfields, declined to comment too, saying that he had been on leave for the past two months. Mine manager Pramod Kumar, whom the workers named, also declined to comment.
A First Information Report was registered by the Godda district police on December 30 to begin an investigation against officials of Mahalaxmi Infra Contract Private Limited – the contractor that was carrying out mining work in Lalmatia mine on behalf of Eastern Coalfields Limited – and the mining manager of Eastern Coalfields. But the police have not detained or questioned any one so far.
Within three days of the accident, 18 bodies and all machinery – 12 large dumpers, five loaders and one bulldozer – were recovered from the accident site. But five bodies continue to remain buried under the debris. Rescue operations were suspended on January 4 “because of technical reasons”.
The Eastern Coalfields rescue team had found that wide cracks had appeared on the surface of the pile of excavated material, indicating the possibility of further landslides.
Warning ignored
The workers first noticed the earth was beginning to come loose and fall in small chunks after Dusshera in mid-October, they said. This was an indication that the “overburden”, the technical name for the pile of excavated material, was unstable.
A week prior to the accident, night shift work excavating inside the pit of the mine had been discontinued because small landslides were occurring at regular intervals. But the work of arranging the earth into bench-like formations going on at the top of the heap of excavated material continued.
On December 29, blasting was carried out in the afternoon, after which a deep crack appeared on the surface of the overburden dump. At 4 pm, Lallu Khan stopped work. A migrant in his mid-30s from Madhya Pradesh’s Sidhi district, he had worked as a supervisor at the site for three years.
“Fourteen workers operating two excavator machines and 12 dumpers were shifted out of the deep mine pit,” said Lallu Khan’s nephew, Idris Khan, an excavator operator with Mahalaxmi. “Lallu asked the afternoon shift working above, on the overburden dump, to also stop work.”
At 5.30 pm, the Eastern Coalfields mine manager, Pramod Kumar, reached the site and asked Lallu Khan to resume work on the overburden, recounted his nephew.
Around 7 pm, less than two hours after work had been restarted, the earth folded and large boulders and debris fell with enormous force.
“The men and machines were standing on top of the bench, which was tearing away,” said Idris Khan. “They had no chance to run. The earth enveloped the men and machines.”
Over the next three days, workers extricated the severely mangled bodies of their colleagues from the debris.
Most of the bodies found were of those who had been driving the dumpers and excavators. But Lallu Khan’s body has still not been found. He had been standing on the earth, and his body may have got buried deeper and crushed more severely, without the protective covering of a metal machine over him, say the workers.
Also to be recovered are the bodies of Madhu Patel, a 36-year-old worker from Kutch in Gujarat; Gagan Singh, a 24-year-old worker from Bhagalpur in Bihar; Bhim Rao, a 30-year-old worker from Kaimur, Bihar, and Parvez Alam, a 28-year old worker from Ramgarh district of Jharkhand.
Life at the mine is hard. Drivers and operators work in eight-hour shifts starting at 5 am, 1 pm, and 9 pm. The shifts of the helpers, mechanics, and supervisors changed every 12 hours.
Operators and drivers hired via the mining contractor work without weekly offs and earn Rs 8,000 to Rs 9,000 per month, much less than the salary Eastern Coalfields pays workers it hires directly.
The mine workers hired on contract live in their one-room tenements, each of which is shared by six to seven workers. Most had migrated from Bihar and Uttar Pradesh to look for work in Jharkhand.
The men who died were their colleagues, and for some, family members.
Maqsood Ansari, a driver with Mahalaxmi, had got both his younger brothers jobs in the Lalmatia mine. His youngest brother Javed Ansari was killed in the accident. Rajan Yadav, from Balia in Uttar Pradesh, had worked on the morning shift that day. His son-in-law, 24-year-old Brajesh Yadav, who worked on the next shift, was also killed.
Criminal negligence
A day after the accident, the Directorate General Mines Safety, a Ministry of Labour and Employment agency responsible for monitoring the safety of mine workers in India, appointed a five-member enquiry team. Coal India Limited, a public sector company of which Eastern Coalfields is a subsidiary, also set up an investigation team.
On January 13, responding to a Public Interest Litigation in the Jharkhand High Court on the accident, the Directorate General Mines Safety accused Eastern Coalfields of criminal negligence. The agency said that the site was not fit for mining, and Eastern Coalfields did not follow safety norms.
“The existing cracks show the overburden dump and the strata were giving a warning since long, but Eastern Coalfields Limited officials were still trying to extract coal,” Rahul Guha, a mining engineer and director general of the Directorate General Mines Safety, told this reporter at his Dhanbad office.
Utpal Saha, deputy director general (eastern zone) of the Directorate General Mines Safety, who is heading the enquiry team, is expected to submit a report in two weeks.
Saha, who is in charge of ensuring the safety of mine workers in nearly 580 coal and non-coal mines in four regions across West Bengal and the seven North East states, had led an inspection to the Lalmatia mine in August 2016.
“I believe ECL [Eastern Coalfields Limited] officials may have misled us during the last inspection by taking us only to a safe area,” he said.
In 2015, there were 68 deaths recorded in 569 coal mines in India, one nearly every five days. Of these, 24 were below ground, 30 were in open-cast mines, 14 above ground.
With the Lalmatia accident, the number of deaths in 2016 will be 88, the highest ever in six years. Besides this, in 2015, there were 122 serious mining accidents, one every three days.
Despite this, officials from the Directorate General Mines Safety say they are under pressure from the Union government to carry out only “randomised inspections”.
“In such a system, a high-risk mine may get low priority of inspection,” said M Tikadhar, director, mine safety, Directorate General Mines Safety. “It has taken us two years to convince labour ministry officials in Delhi that a randomised inspections system, which reduces the inspector’s decision making, will not work in mines that have very dynamic operations.”
But with each zonal head responsible for hundreds of coal and non-coal mines spread across states, more than inspections, mine safety officials say everyday safety will greatly benefit if mining operators prepared and followed safety management plans, which is not a statutory requirement right now.
“We have the power to issue guidelines to mining companies to make safety management plans, but ultimately, the mining company has to own the safety plan,” said a senior official of the Directorate General Mines Safety. “A few years back, when we insisted that each coal mine have a safety management plan, Coal India Limited hired a few retired officials as consultants who prepared the same safety plans for multiple mines, in some instances simply copy pasting, without even changing the name of the mines.”
No one questioned so far
Coal India Limited is the world’s largest coal miners, and Eastern Coalfields is one of its eight subsidiaries.
Lalmatia, Eastern Coalfields’ largest and deepest open cast mine, produced 17 million tonnes of coal in 2016, half of the company’s annual production.
Despite this, production in Eastern Coalfields was on “auto mode”, noted Shubhomoy Bhattacharjee in the Business Standard earlier this month. The company has not had a chairman since 2015, and it did not have a director (technical) for a long time after October 2015, the report pointed out.
Following the accident, coal supply to National Thermal Power Corporation’s 2,340-megawatt power plant at Kahalgaon in Bihar, and another plant at Farakka in West Bengal, was disrupted. But mining operations at Lalmatia fully resumed on January 12.
The compensation announced by Eastern Coalfields Limited and mining contractor Mahalaxmi is yet to reach the victims’ families, said the workers.
Mining industry demands abolition of export duty on low-grade iron ore in Union Budget 2017
Miners' body Federation of Indian Mineral Industries (FIMI) has sought for abolition of export duty on the low-grade iron ore in the upcoming budget.
"Due to the slowdown in steel industry, domestic demand of iron ore is very subdued. At present, the iron ore from Odisha and Jharkhand can be exported only from Haldia, Paradip, Vizag and Dhamra ports," FIMI Secretary General R K Sharma told .
"Therefore, we suggested the government that export duty on iron ore exported from these ports may be removed for ore up to 62 per cent Fe content as against up to 58 per cent Fe at present," Sharma said.
Iron is a chemical element with symbol Fe and atomic number 26.
At present, there is an export duty of 30 per cent on low-grade iron ore. Iron ore is a key ingredient in steel making.
Further, Sharma was of the view that as against the production of 155.90 million tonnes (MT) of iron ore in 2015-16, domestic demand is only 115 MT.
He added that "4.50 MT iron ore was exported mainly from Goa (3.255), Vizag (1.106) and a small quantity from Redi port (0.146) which seems to be of Goan origin."
"Moreover, 7.09 MT of iron ore was imported by steel companies, mainly by JSW in Karnataka. The net demand of iron ore was therefore 112.41 MT, " he explained.
In addition, there is a stockpile of 128.66 MT of iron ore at mine-heads as on 31 March, 2015, he said.
The areas where there is surplus production and lack of adequate outlet are Odisha and Jharkhand. The mines in these states are in interior. Because of non-lifting of entire production, Odisha had a stockpile of 76.92 MT and Jharkhand 24.72 MT at mine-heads as on March 31, 2015.
"Out of the total stockpile of 144.52 MT (at mine-heads as on July 31, 2016), 122.83 MT or 85 per cent are in Odisha and Jharkhand," he said.
Odisha also accounts for 58 per cent of the total stockpile in the country. It will be further observed that of the total stockpile, 70 per cent are below 62 per cent Fe (both lumps and fines). Fines constitute 93 per cent of the all-India stockpile of below 62 per cent Fe in these two states, he added.
The Government will present the Union Budget for FY 2017-18 on February 1.
CIL to launch coal auction for power cos with flexible lifting
Amid soft demand for coal, state- owned CIL will hold long-term special forward auction for power producers with flexible lifting period of up to 3 years.
"A long-term special forward e-auction for lifting period up to three years is being launched for power producers," an official said.
Coal India Ltd (CIL) will soon notify the detailed offer, schedule dates for auction, he said.
Power utilities consume about 75-77 per cent of the total coal, as per estimates.
According to PwC's Kameswara Rao it is easier to auction for 3-5 years, as states will not have to commit to a longer- term generation capacity.
This will serve existing power plants which do not have a linkage but will not attract new capacity addition, he added.
"The design of auction of coal linkage is made complex by the economic and market realities of how long term power itself is competitively procured. It's understandable that it's taking a longer time to finalise it," he said.
He also added that the current demand for coal is soft but there are signs of some improvement.
"Electricity demand growth remains modest at 5-6 per cent over last year, and market prices remain modest even for peak periods," he said.
But this could change in coming two quarters when higher imported coal prices start to reflect as contracts are re-priced.
Coal India, which accounts for over 80 per cent of the domestic coal production, is eyeing 1 billion tonne of output by 2020. The PSU is looking at 598 million tonne in 2016-17.
Anglo Shortlists Bidders for Some South African Coal Mines
Anglo American Plc has shortlisted groups led by some of South Africa’s most prominent black businessmen as bidders for several of its South African coal mines as it focuses on diamonds, platinum and copper, two people familiar with the discussions said.
Groups selected by Anglo include companies led by Mike Teke, president of South Africa’s Chamber of Mines; Phuthuma Nhleko, chairman of the Phembani Group and head of Africa’s biggest mobile phone company MTN Group Ltd.; and Sandile Zungu, executive chairman of Zungu Investments, according to the people who asked not to be identified because the information is not public. Rand Merchant Bank is involved in the process, they said.
Anglo, founded in Johannesburg in 1917, announced plans in February last year to sell more than half its mines to focus on a smaller group of commodities. The mines under discussion are those that sell coal locally in South Africa, mainly to state power company Eskom Holdings SOC Ltd. Together the assets -- the New Vaal, Kriel and New Denmark mines - account for about half of the company’s South African coal production.
Eskom Contracts
The three mines combined produced almost 7 million tons of coal in the third quarter of last year, according to Anglo. While the value of the coal contracts with Eskom varies, they usually average around 500 rand ($37.07) per ton, Khulu Phasiwe, a spokesman at the utility, said by phone. That would equate to about $1 billion worth of coal annually from the Anglo assets.
South Africa’s government is pushing companies to boost black involvement in the economy to make up for discrimination during apartheid. Eskom says it wants suppliers to be black controlled.
Anglo won’t comment on potential bidders due to confidentiality agreements, company spokesman Moeketsi Mofokeng said by phone. "We continue to engage Eskom and the government about the process that we’ve embarked on." Teke, Zungu and RMB also declined to comment. Phembani didn’t immediately reply to e-mails.
CoalMin to move Cabinet soon for fuel linkages to power sector
The coal ministry will soon seek the Cabinet's approval for the auction of coal linkages for the power sector. "It is broadly finalised ... We will take it to the Cabinet soon," Coal and Power Minister Piyush Goyal said on the sidelines on an event here. "We will soon go for inter-ministerial consultations. The whole process has been finalised," he said. He further said that the government was never in a hurry to auction linkages for the power sector as there is sufficient availability of coal in the country for all the sectors. "We are trying to create robust mechanism which ensures highest level of transparency," he said. Earlier, the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs had approved allocation of coal linkages for non-regulated sector only through auction. Coal India Ltd had decided to allocate a total quantity of around 23.25 million tonnes per annum (MTPA) in the first tranche of coal linkage auction.
Warm Regards
Anurag Singal
Sr Manager –Business Development
Essel Mining & Industries Ltd
14th Floor, Industry House
10,Camac Street –Kol-71
Ph: 033-30518415,9088026252
The information contained in this electronic communication is intended solely for the individual(s) or entity to which it is addressed. It may contain proprietary, confidential and/or legally privileged information. Any review, retransmission, dissemination, printing, copying or other use of, or taking any action in reliance on the contents of this information by person(s) or entities other than the intended recipient is strictly prohibited and may be unlawful. If you have received this communication in error, please notify us by responding to this email or telephone and immediately and permanently delete all copies of this message and any attachments from your system(s). The contents of this message do not necessarily represent the views or policies of Aditya Birla Group. Computer viruses can be transmitted via email. Aditya Birla Group Companies attempts to sweep e-mails and attachments for viruses, it does not guarantee that either are virus free. The recipient should check this email and any attachments for the presence of viruses. Aditya Birla Group does not accept any liability for any damage sustained as a result of viruses.
No comments:
Post a Comment