Supreme Court gives permission to Karnataka to partially restart iron ore mining

BANGALORE: The Supreme Court has given permission to 18 mines in the state with the aim to resume iron ore production.

Earlier, India used to be the No 3 iron ore exporter in the globe as China was its key client until a ban was imposed during 2010.

The production from the resumed mines will be NMDC's top priority, which has bagged nod from te Supreme Court for production from August 6, 2011.

RK Sharma, secretary general of the Federation of Indian Mineral Industries, said, “It is a positive order, other category mines will also start opening slowly.”

Karnataka in the past was country's second-biggest iron ore manufacturer and contributed close to 25% of exports.

But the state imposed ban on the movements of iron ore with the aim to control illegal mining in 2010.

In 2011-12, India's iron ore production slipped to nearly 169 million tonnes and exports were 60 million tonnes.