The country's major mineral production may see a 5-8 per cent growth this year, which in value terms it will be much higher, a senior mines ministry official said here.
Union mines secretary Arun Kumar also said closure of some iron ore mines in Odisha and Goa may not have much impact on the ore exports as the situation is moving towards normalisation.
"Mineral production will grow 5-8 per cent this year in volume terms. In value terms, production of major minerals (iron ore, bauxite, limestone, chromium and manganese) was about in excess of Rs 40,000 crore. This year this will be more as due to higher international prices," Kumar told reporters on the sidelines of a mining conference here.
Replying to a query, he said net exports of iron ore was 25 million tonne last year which was about 12.5 per cent of the total production.
During the past three years, Rs 1.80 trillion worth of mineral were auctioned out and it would entail Rs 1.35 trillion revenue to the states.
"Due to the auction process there would be an additional revenue of Rs 1.04 trillion to the state and local bodies," he added.
Union mines minister Narendra Singh Tomar said mining is the second largest sector after agriculture in terms of livelihood.
He said though the country has 8 lakh sqkm of minable area, only 1 per cent of it is being mined now. "If the mining has been taken up in the entire area from the beginning, we can take it to 8 per cent from the 1 per cent now, and contribution of mining to GDP would go up substantially and more employment would be generated," Tomar said.
He opined that some of the mineral-rich states are economically backward and to strike a balance the district mineral foundation was set up.
ESL Narasimhan, governor of Telangana and Andhra Pradesh called for a transparent policy for rehabilitation of people-affected by mining.
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