Out of 518 iron ore mines in India, 267 or more than half were non-operational as of May 1, 2016, data sourced from India’s Ministry of Steel and Mines shows.
Commenting on the large number of closed iron ore mines in the country, a ministry official said on Friday, May 13, that the causes of the continued closure of such a large number of mines includes expiry of existing mining leases, delays in renewal of lapsed leases, absence of environmental clearances as per the new guidelines of the Supreme Court, and small mines becoming unviable under present depressed international prices for the raw material.
However, the official excluded the possibility of any imminent shortage of raw material despite a large number of mines remaining non-operational. He pointed out that, on the contrary, there is a glut on the supply side with production in the current fiscal year projected to rise to 180 million mt. Current iron ore stockpiles stands at 140 million mt as of May 1 despite a 63 percent fall in imports during the financial year 2015-16 to 5.6 million mt.
Iron ore stockpiles on March 31, 2015, had stood at 128 million mt, while total iron ore production in the financial year 2015-16 was estimated at 155 million mt.