VV Minerals Explains Why And How The Heavy Mineral Mining Industry In India Is Slow

Posted by Shivar Rajan
2
Jul 20, 2015
191 Views
India is home to a lot of minerals that are being sparing mined, used, exported and earned from. However, one of the many pointers that the government seems to overlook is the fact that unlike other minerals that deplete over time, heavy minerals do not.

Most heavy minerals are mined from sands. Out of the sands that are used to extract minerals only about 20% of the total sand availed is used. The rest chunk of 80% sand is backfilled at the source. Thus, the heavy mineral mining industry is fairly sustainable.

If the government were to become more open about exploiting these heavy mineral resources then we could also look into research and development of systems and processes that may help us cope with even the minutest of loss of sand.

Heavy minerals are used for vital applications in various industries (ceramics, paints, electronics, plastics, pharmaceuticals, paper, pigments, aerospace, defence, etc.) and are thus termed strategic minerals.

Heavy minerals also include those with high specific gravity found within mineral sands, such as titanium and rare earths.

Critical applications in many industries are found in various industries – such as electronics, ceramics, pigments, paints, paper, plastics, pharmaceuticals, aerospace and defense.

Garnet is used in water filtration, water-jet cutting, surface preparation, sand blasting and other applications. 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.

Mines Act declares that the Factory Act will not be applicable to mining industry, but we are forced to abide by the factory act rules also as most of the government officials are not aware of the mining act. So unnecessarily the industry is forced to implement the clauses of Factory act also which increases the overhead costs.
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