PANAJI
The Goa government hopes to earn Rs 650 crore in revenue from the beleaguered mining sector in the upcoming financial year, with Sawant expressing hope in his budget speech about the resumption of mining activity in the state.
In his speech, the Chief Minister told the state legislative assembly that the Goa Mineral Development Corporation, which was floated by the state government last year would be at the forefront of its efforts to restart mining in the upcoming fiscal.
Sawant also said that the state government’s ‘Dump Policy’ was one of the measures which his government had undertaken to bring the mining sector in the state back on track. Mining dumps are essentially mountainous heaps of low-grade iron ore dumped by mining companies near their mining leases over the decades. The dumped ore was not processed at the time because of lack of feasibility, during the 2000s mining boom.
There are currently over 736 million tonnes of iron ore dumped in mountain-like heaps in Goa’s mining belt, according to state government records.
The mining issue has been hanging fire in Goa ever since the apex court banned extraction and transportation of iron ore from 88 mining leases from March 2018, while also directing the state government to re-issue mining leases.
