BARSUAN (SUNDARGARH):THE opening of a fresh mine, Taldihi iron ore block under Barsuan Iron Mines (BIM), has come as a breather for SAIL and its stakeholders who had been incurring losses after the closure of Tensa iron ore mine in 2014.
The first rake of iron ore from Taldihi mine under raw materials division (RMD) of SAIL was flagged off from Barsuan Valley railway siding for Rourkela Steel Plant (RSP) on Saturday by RMD Executive Director Alok Shrivastav.
Among others, BIM general manager AK Pal; deputy general managers A Khare, BK Soren and PK Rath; assistant general manager PC Barua; senior manager JP Mishra; deputy manager PK Das and a host of stakeholders were present.
Sources in RMD said, in the wake of suspension of mining operations at Tensa iron mine from May 16, 2014 following a Supreme Court order, the RMD decided to develop the unused iron ore block at Taldihi to meet the shortfall in production.
Accordingly, contract was awarded to a private firm for one year to generate one million tonnes per annum (MTPA) from Taldihi block. Work started from May 11 this year with laying of approach road and mobilisation of machineries. Production of ore started recently.
The BIM has two lease hold areas. While one licence covers the iron mine at Tensa with two MTPA capacity, the other lease licence covers Barsuan railway dispatch point having machinery installations for processing of ores.
Owing to non-clearance of forest norms, the court order restricted operations at the dispatch point which is connected to Tensa mine through conveyor belt. Presently, the nearby Kalta iron mine of RMD produces 1.03 MTPA.
RMD sources said, status report on forest norms compliance has been submitted to Ministry of Forest and Environment and would be produced in the apex court shortly.
In the last 30 months, SAIL has suffered huge losses as it was paying about 370 regular workers and 400 contractual workers of BIM without any production. At one point of time, RMD was considering retrenching the contract workers, said RMD sources.
Meanwhile, HMS-affiliated Rourkela Mazdoor Sabha secretary Amiya Rout welcomed the opening of Taldihi mine and demanded RMD to ensure early resumption of works at Tensa mine.