India: HC of Bombay stays transport from Pissurlem mine in Goa

-By SteelMint Bureau/Meera Mohanty

The High Court of Bombay at Goa has stayed transportation of ore from the Pissurlem mine which Vedanta and another party had bought from government auction. It has given Pramod Sawant's Government one week to explain how it auctioned this ore without ascertaining its grade in the first place, and while it had stayed transport of dumps from another mine.

In 2014 the Supreme Court said Goa's leases which were operational until September of 2012 had lapsed in November of 2007. Goa government's attempts at rebooting the sector, first with renewals and then by seeking an extension, had been struck down by the apex court. The Centre has also so far refused to bring in any amendment that could be seen as going against its auction-only stand for allocation of mineral rights.

Goa has been hesitant to auction the leases and snub old lessees who claim inheritable rights to these areas granted by the colonial Portuguese government. Meanwhile it has been selling ore that was found at various mines at the time of the SC's 2014 order, inventoried and submitted to the court.

The 3 lakh tonnes of ore from the Pissurlem it auctioned on 19 January 2022 was not part of this inventory. The state government argues this is as per the court's order, government property. Set at a base price of Rs 350 a tonne, the material was bought largely by Vedanta which acquired 2.95 lakh tonnes with a certain Shirodkar the small remaining amount.

Goa Foundation, the NGO-petitioner in matter before the SC, had moved the HC for a stay on this transportation. The court in its order on Tuesday also took note of the fact that Goa State Pollution Control Board had not monitored the transportation.

Directing the Pollution Control Board to file a detailed affidavit, the court also wanted to know the state's position on auctioning ore without ascertaining and declaring its grade. "In the present case, the records indicate that the material was knocked down at the base price of Rs 350 per metric tonne. The petitioner (...) has pleaded and such pleadings are even backed with documents that where the grade of the ore was specified, the bid amounts at the e-auction ranges between Rs 1360 per metric tonne (for ore of FE content 48.50 %) to Rs 4130 per metric tonne (for Fe content of 52.35% ). ...This is an additional reason why ad-interim relief is required to be granted at this stage itself," says the order. The matter will be heard again on 20 April 2022.

In November last year, the court had also stopped despatch from Mineira Nacional Limitada's old lease No.62/51, a mine once owned by Salgaocar Mining Industries and operated by Fomento Resources. In that case, the lessee who hadn't operated the lease in years had managed to convince the state directorate that under the amended MMDR 2015 its lease lapsed in March 2020. The state, rather belatedly, granted it the six-months offered at the end of a regular lease term for evacuating material, in this case 2.5 million tonnes of FE 51 % ore. Half of this material was dispatched by the time the court ordered a stay.

Tuesday's order comes at an awkward time. Returning as CM, Sawant had declared the resumption of mining was his priority. He expects the state to make Rs 650 crore from mining in FY 2022-23. His "dump" policy, announced just before the state polls, is notified. Rules are being framed for a state-owned corporation. There are also expectations of a more long-term solution to Goa's mining conundrum, with the possibility of auctioning freehold or maybe the contentious leases themselves.