Monsoon arrival ends iron ore mining season in Goa

Thursday, 16 Jun 2011

With the onset of monsoons in Goa, the nine month long mining season in the state came to a closure with trucks seen transporting the last extracted iron ore consignments during the week end.

Goa, which is the highest exporter of iron ore, will now see only lumpy ore being sent abroad through its port located in Vasco town. The monsoons arrived in Goa signaling the winding up of the mining season, which was marked with several protests and environmental issues this time.

The Goa Mineral Ore Exporters’ Association a body representing ore exporters, have said that the exports would be down by almost 80 to 90% during monsoon as the ore in the form of fines cannot be transported in wet weather.

The association secretary, Mr Glenn Kalavampara said that only lumpy ore would be exported during monsoon with few exceptions. He said that “There are few mines which export fines by taking abundant precautions like extra covering on the trucks.”

Mr Kalavampara said few mines, which have lumpy ore, will continue their operations during monsoon. He said that “There are several smaller mines which also have lumpy ore, but they cannot export it because the quantity is minimal.”

The mining business has to be shut down largely because port operations at Panaji minor port and also major operations at Mormugao Port Trust comes to an end during monsoon. He said that “The transhipper can only be loaded at mooring dolphins, a facility at the breakwater offered by MPT.”

Goa has around 100 active mining leases which extracts and exports around 40 million tonnes of ore annually. Against the general turnover of six million tonnes of iron ore exported every month, only one million tonnes of iron ore can be exported during rainy days.

(Sourced from PTI)