VV Mineral V Subramanian Take On The Indian Heavy Minerals Industry

1. VV Mineral V Subramanian Take On The Indian Heavy Minerals Industry

2. 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 India’s largest exporter of garnet and ilmenite. http://vvmineralblog.wordpress.com

3. Recently, an interview of Vaikundarajan by Ramesh Kumar Raja was published in Governance Today, where he spoke briefly about India’s 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. http://vvmineral.wordpress.com

4. 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. http://vvmineralmining.wordpress.com

5. 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 world’s largest reserves of ‘Heavy Mineral sands’ [~ 25- 28 per cent], yet its exploitation is low [~5- 6 per cent]. http://vvmineral-mining.blogspot.in

6. 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. http://vvmineralmining.blogspot.in

7. 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.

8. 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 India’s 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 world’s heavy mineral production. Given a slight attention from Government, we can easily contribute more than 50% of the world’s production. http://vvmineralblog.wordpress.com

9. 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. http://vvmineral.wordpress.com

10. 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 R&D 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. http://vvmineralmining.wordpress.com

11. 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. http://vvmineral-mining.blogspot.in

12. V.V. Minerals Blogs http://vvmineralblog.wordpress.com http://vvmineral.wordpress.com http://vvmineralmining.wordpress.com http://vvmineral-mining.blogspot.in http://vvmineralmining.blogspot.in

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