BANGALORE: Kudremukh Iron Ore Company Limited (KIOCL), the largest public sector undertaking in mining and pelletisation process, has come with diverse solutions that will not only address its ecological issues but also help the company gain from it.
The company now plans to set up a tiles manufacturing unit by using iron ore dust or slime deposits from Lakya Dam as raw material. They will be mixed with sand to manufacture tiles.
Mining in Kudremukh was banned by the Supreme Court in 2006 following concerns raised by environmental groups.
“The iron content in the slurry is in the range of 25 per cent and we can extractclose to 50 million tonnes of ore from this dam. After separating iron ore, we can use the remaining slurry for making bricks and tiles,” said K Ranganath, KIOCL chairman and managing director.
“The accumulated slurry when used with sand makes for tiles that can be used for construction purposes. Further, there is enough slurry to run a tile manufacturing unit for three to four years that can give employment to 5,000 people,” said Ranganath.
In the process, the KIOCL will also be able to desilt Lakya Dam increasing its water storage capacity.
The purified water could be used for supplying water to parts of Mangalore city, which faces scarcity of water during summer months, he said.
The KIOCL also plans to approach the Supreme Court once again for permission to extract the already blasted ore from Kudremukh mines, which are getting accumulated in Bhadra river.
The KIOCL estimates the broken ore to around 24 million tonnes, which is enough to run its pellet plant for another three years.
“Before closure of the mines in 2006, we had blasted some portions of the mine, which is lying in lose form, which during the monsoon flows into the river and threatens to damage the ecosystem of Western ghats, especially Bhadra river,” he said.
KIOCL’s production this year touched 2.1 million tonnes, which is the highest since the closure of the Kudremukh mine in 2006, and it has also made a profit of `75 crore.
Despite its challenges, the company every year spends `1 crore or 3 per cent of its profit, which ever is higher, for activities under corporate social responsibility.