SALEM: Small-scale mine owners are in a fix as the Madras High Court has dismissed a case against the State government’s restriction on mining limestone and related minerals.
New guidelines issued by the Central Bureau of Mines have also hit the small-scale sector badly. Minerals such as limestone, quartz and feldspar have a versatile application in a wide variety of products.
In Salem, about 100 small and medium-sized mines employ about 5,000 families. As the sector is labour intensive, the workers are the immediate victims, say mine owners. Sankagiri taluk in the district has the maximum number of limestone, quartz and feldspar mines.
According to M Shenbagaraman, president, Tamil Nadu Small Mine Owners Association, the State government, in 1998 had banned mining of limestone and related minerals within a 20-km radius of a cement factory. The restriction was clamped with a view to protecting the captive mines of large cement factories (normally located in lime-rich areas).
However, the government did not even pass a GO on the restriction and the Department of Mines and Geology continued to extend the permit till 2003. When the restriction was revoked and the renewal of permit denied for mines falling within the 20-km radius, small-scale miners filed a case in the Madras High Court. The case was dismissed on October 29.
The association members met in Salem on Wednesday to take stock of the situation arising out of the court order. According to them, the restriction will squeeze supply of limestone, quartz and feldspar to a considerable extent. The fertilizer industry, manufacturers of soap, cleaning powder, tile, pipe, glass, cattle and poultry feed, silicon chips and electronic spare manufacturers will face a shortage of raw material if the mining of minerals is reduced.
