VV Mineral V Subramanian Take On The Indian Heavy Minerals Industry

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VV Mineral V Subramanian Take On The Indian Heavy
Minerals Industry
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VV Minerals, a Tamil Nadu based beach mining
company, is one of the largest exporters of beach
minerals in India. Lead by the enigmatic Managing
Director, Subramaniam Vaikundarajan, the company
is Indias largest exporter of garnet and
ilmenite.
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Recently, an interview of Vaikundarajan by Ramesh
Kumar Raja was published in Governance Today,
where he spoke briefly about Indias current
position in the world production of heavy
minerals and the steps that can be taken for its
improvement. Following are a few excerpts from
the interview.
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Give us a brief overview of the heavy minerals
market in India? What is its size? HMM industry
comprises mainly of beach minerals Ilmenite,
Zircon, Rutile, Garnet, Sillimanite and
Leucoxene. These minerals also include ones with
high specific gravity, such as titanium and rare
earths found only in Odisha, Andhra Pradesh,
Kerala, Maharashtra and Tamil Nadu. India has
nearly 35 per cent of world deposits but
contributes only 4 percent of global production.
The total beach sand resources in India are at
942.58 million tonnes.
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How much does heavy minerals constitute in the
total mining done in India? The Heavy Minerals
Mining industry constitutes a paltry two per cent
of the entire mining done in India. Although
India possesses the worlds largest reserves of
Heavy Mineral sands 25- 28 per cent, yet
its exploitation is low 5- 6 per cent.
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What are these heavy minerals, where all they
find utility and how are they important for
Indian economy? Heavy minerals primarily
comprise Ilmenite, Zircon, Rutile, Monazite,
Garnet, Sillimanite and Leucoxene. With critical
applications in many industries such as
electronics, ceramics, pigments, paints, paper,
plastics, pharmaceuticals, aerospace and defence
they are also called strategic minerals and
are important for our economy. For example,
Garnet is widely used as an abrasive in oil
producing companies for corrosion control.
Ilmenite and Rutile are Titanium feedstock used
mainly for producing Tio2 pigment and small
quantities in production of welding electrodes.
Zircon is used in ceramic tiles as an opacifier
and in refractory for insulation.
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What are the major policy bottlenecks that are
affecting industry growth despite the
scope? Private sector was allowed entry only
three decades back in the industry. So this
budding sector needs government support but in
reality, government keeps on imposing more and
more restrictions. Some of the following policy
bottlenecks responsible for lethargic growth
are 18 agencies are involved in granting
permission for mining and processing, 7 are state
concerned and 11 from the Central Government
There are 30 conditions laid down by the Ministry
of Environment Forest while clearing mining
projects, some of which areimpracticable The
CRZ requirements are also not in favour of Beach
Mineral industry. Export licenses are issued
for only one year and renewal is a cumbersome
process Many such issues are faced by the mining
companies regularly.
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What are the opportunities in this sector? The
HMM industry could yield nearly Rs 30,000 crore
to the exchequer if exploited sustainably. To
boost Indias GDP and make inclusive growth a
reality, mining needs to grow in a big way and
hurdles cleared in the mineral supply of
industry. The private players contribute almost
close to 5 of the worlds heavy mineral
production. Given a slight attention from
Government, we can easily contribute more than
50 of the worlds production.
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Where do you foresee this industry in next five
years? This industry can be the most promising
sector in the next five years. The growth can be
almost 30-50. What is your annual output of
heavy minerals each year in India? We export
close to 7,00,000 tonnes of heavy minerals each
year which is valued at Rs 850 crores
approximately.
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What is the infrastructure of VV Minerals and who
are its close competitors? VV Mineral presently
owns about nine Mineral separation plants with
each dry plant having its own pre-concentration
plants, a huge fleet of trucks and earth moving
equipment, 12 warehouses with a storage capacity
of 600,000 tonnes, a full-fledged RD Department,
Exploration team with Drill Rig, Centralised
laboratory and first of its kind Ship loader
(which can load 21,000 tonnes/ day). We have few
fellow mineral producers in India, namely Indian
Rare Earth (Government of India), Trimex Sands,
Indian Ocean Garnet Sands, and few other small
companies.
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What support do you need for developing heavy
minerals mining in India? Single window
clearance for the mining industry Export
Incentives that allow India to be a competitive
player in global market Restrictive Import
policy i.e., antidumping duty on TiO2, Rutile and
Zircon should be done away with Simplification
in process for MoEF as well as CRZ clearances 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. Ironically, the fallout of
the restrictions imposed by has resulted in
benefiting China which controls 90 per cent of
the industry.
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V.V. Minerals Blogs
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Social Media
https//www.facebook.com/vvmineralmining
https//twitter.com/vvmineralsindia
https//plus.google.com/115427745398374600571
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