KOLKATA (miningweekly.com) – The Industrial Development Corporation of Orissa Limited (Idcol), a provincial level industrial promotional agency, and Indian Rare Earths Limited (IREL), will establish a joint venture (JV) for the extraction of rare earth minerals from beach sand along the Orissa coastline.
According to the JV agreement, $72-million would be invested to establish a new rare earth mineral extraction plant in Orissa close to IREL’s existing plant, with Idcol and IREL holding a respective 49% and 51% equity stake in the JV.
“The JV would be set up for the project since Idcol held the prospecting licence for three beach sand mines across 1 257 ha along the Orissa coast and IREL was the country’s leading and sole expert in separating rare-earth minerals from sands,” Idcol chairperson Vishal Dev said.
Once the JV company structure was in place it would apply for the necessary environmental clearances from the federal Forest and Environment Ministry and the extraction plant would be made operational within two years from the date of receiving such approvals, he said.
A provincial government official said that Orissa with a coastline of 480 km along the Bay of Bengal and it had been estimated by IREL that heavy mineral reserves of around 100-million tonnes remained to be prospected and explored along the coast.