Policy Intervention For A Boost To The Promising Heavy Mineral Mining Industry: VV Mineral

Q. Give us a brief overview of the heavy minerals market in India? Why it is a nascent industry? Heavy Minerals Mining (HMM) industry comprises mainly of Ilmenite, Zircon, Rutile, Garnet, and Sillimanite, including ones with high specific gravity, such as titanium and rare earths. Heavy mineral sands are replenishable. There is a demand-supply mismatch as we are unable to exploit our mineral wealth in a sustainable manner. India imports most of its requirements, which depletes forex reserves. Although India possesses the World’s largest reserves of Heavy Mineral sands yet its exploitation is dismally low. The allegations made on his company, V. V. Minerals, India's top exporter of industrial minerals garnet and ilmenite, have brought Vaikundarajan under high scrunity.

Q. Why are heavy minerals very important for Indian economy? With critical applications in many industries – such as electronics, ceramics, pigments, paints, paper, plastics, pharmaceuticals, aerospace and defence – heavy minerals are also called ‘strategic minerals’ and are important for our economy as it finds its applications everywhere. As a strategic mineral, thorium is critical for India’s nuclear power program. Q. What is your annual output of heavy minerals each year in India? Last year during FY 13-14, we have exported around 7,00,000 tonnes of heavy minerals and to the value of 800 crores approximately.

Q. Comment on the key trends in the Garnet and Ilmenite sector ? India has one of the largest reserves of Ilmenite in the world but its production is woeful 8,00,000 tonnes annually. Garnet is an eco-friendly mineral and is meant of 100% exports. The demand globally is 10 lakhs tonnes and India exports around 6.5 lakhs tonnes. Q. What about TiO2 market in India? Where does it find its value? The most important value added product derived from Ilmenite is Titanium Dioxide. It is a strategic mineral with applications in aerospace, paint, automobile, defence, ceramics, tiles & refractory. VV Mineral produces tonnes of TiO2 annually.

Q. What would be the entry barriers and key challenges in the Heavy Minerals Mining sector? High export duty on Ilmenite, lack of port infrastructure, proximity of the mineral sands deposits to the ports, lack of sufficient power, delay in getting official approvals and clearances, and most importantly few laws supporting the Heavy Minerals Mining industry. Q. What are the opportunities in the Heavy Minerals Mining sector? The Heavy Mineral Mining industry has enormous potential which could yield nearly Rs 30,000 crore in annual turnover to the exchequer. To boost India’s GDP and make inclusive growth a reality, mining needs to grow in a big way and hurdles cleared in the mineral supply of industry.

Q. Do you think that the present policy is affecting the growth of this industry? Kindly elaborate. First, our antiquated laws (MMDR Act of 1957 and MCR of 1960) are very general and not specific to this industry. Second, single window clearance for the mining industry is required as it takes a total number of 28 ministries and departments at state and central government levels, i.e. more than 2800 days (nearly 8 years). Thirdly, the government must provide export incentives as it has imposed a duty on Ilmenite which makes India uncompetitive with global counterparts.

Fourthly, Anti-dumping duty on Tio2, Rutile and Zircon should be remove. Fifthly, we need simplification of MOEF (Ministry of Environment & Forest) clearance as well as CRZ clearance for heavy minerals mining or fix a particular time frame for granting the approval. Lastly, there is not a single large scale world class independent mine operating in free market conditions in India. The misconceptions about sand mining are often confused with beach minerals mining needs to be removed and this nascent industry must be given a policy level fillip.

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