KOLKATA (miningweekly.com) – Hopes of an early resumption of mining operations in the western Indian province of Goa have receded and industry fears that it could now be two years before production can restart.

“Even if the provincial government was able to finalise its new mining policy and grant new mining leases, it would still take two years for mining activities in Goa to resume,” a Federation of Indian Mineral Industries (FIMI) official said.

The Goa government was expected to finalise the draft of the mandatory new mining policy by the end of June and subsequently grant new mining leases. The process of granting the mining lease and the possibility of adopting the auction route for the granting of leases would also have to be laid down in the new policy.

However, FIMI and industry officials apprehended that the end-June deadline for a draft mining policy would be missed, further delaying the resumption of mining, the official said.

It was pointed out that even after the grant of a mining lease, a miner would have to apply for mandatory approvals from the Ministry of Environment and Forests, the Goa state pollution control board, the Indian Bureau of Mines and the Directorate General for Mines Safety – a process that could take two years.

“Given such an environment and the pace at which provincial and federal governments work, the possibility of mining operations resuming by September 2014, as stated by the Goa government, was a distant dream,” a FIMI official said.

“At best, the provincial government would be able to e-auction existing iron-ore stockpiles as permitted by the Supreme Court, which was not the same as resuming actual extraction of ore from the mines,” he added.

“Everybody dependent on the mining industry hoped that activity would resume immediately and it is up to the provincial government to ensure that. I don’t understand why the local government is delaying the policy formulation,” local media quoted Goa Mining People’s Front convener Suhas Naikwas as saying.

Although no official data were available on the number of workers rendered unemployed by the ban on mining in Goa, figures from industry and trade unions indicate that about 65 000 to 70 000 people who were directly employed by the mines lost their jobs, while 35 000 to 40 000 employed in allied logistics and transportation sectors were rendered jobless.

In April 2014, India’s Supreme Court lifted the 18-month ban on iron-ore mining in Goa in the wake of allegations of and investigations into illegal mining. The court order, however, imposed a yearly cap on iron-ore mining at 20-million tonnes.

Prior to the ban, iron-ore production from the western Indian coastal province ranged between 40-million and 50-million tonnes a year.

According to India’s National Mineral Inventory 2010, Odisha accounts for 33.9% and Goa 5.3% of the total 28.52-billion tons of iron-ore reserves in India.