CHENNAI: The Central government removed titanium bearing minerals from the prescribed substance list 10 years ago, so no licence is required for mining them, T G Ravindran of the Department of Atomic Energy (DAE), Mumbai, told the Madras High Court. Denying the allegation levelled by amicus curiae V Suresh that the Atomic Minerals Directorate (AMD) had failed to stop several players from mining beach sand beyond the permitted quantities, Ravindran in his counter affidavit submitted that the DAE had delisted titanium bearing minerals and zircon in 2007 to encourage effective utilisation of these valuable minerals and their value addition.
However, Indian Rare Earths Ltd (IREL), a public sector undertaking, has been allowed to handle monazite for use and further process it.Since IREL has the handling licence under the 1984 Atomic Energy (Working of the Mines, Minerals and Handling of Prescribed Substance), only its facilities are licensed to produce and process monazite. The reply was filed in response to a report filed by the amicus curiae in connection with a suo motu PIL by the First Bench headed by the Chief Justice of Madras High Court.
While referring to the allegation of non-applicability of Atomic Energy (Working of the Mines, Minerals and Handling of Prescribed Substance) Rules, 1984, by the DAE on beach sand mining, the counter said a few facilities were carrying out separation of and preparation of ilmenite, rutile, garnet, zircon and sillimanite from beach sand. Such facilities generated relatively less quantities of monazite enriched tailings. The monazite content in them were generally 10 to 25 per cent.
Therefore, these facilities were recommended to keep the monazite enriched tailing in trenches located within their premises and to top them with silica rich tailings, so that the background radiation level doses would not increase. “It is pertinent to state that after the denotification of the Prescribed Substances and after certain substances were taken out of the Mines and Minerals (Development and Regulation) Act, amendments ought to have been made in the Mineral Concession Development Act, so as to pave the way for submission of ‘scheme of mining’ for atomic minerals like ilmenite, rutile, leucoxene and zircon in case of which the AMD too would have received the ‘scheme of mining’ from the beach sand mining players.
There by, mining operation could have been monitored and action taken against concern lessee if any deviation is noticed.” Refuting another charge of the amicus that the DAE had issued handling licence to VV Minerals, though VV Minerals didn’t have mining lease for ilmenite, the official said this does not mean that they can carry out mining operations without valid licence.
Rights to produce
IREL has the handling licence under the 1984 Atomic Energy (Working of the Mines, Minerals and Handling of Prescribed Substance) Rules