Vizag sand to build planes

By SNV Sudhir

Visakhapatnam, Mar 1: Thousands of regular beach goers of the city know very little that the golden sands, which they often tread, have rich and rare hidden mineral treasures. It was proved that of the entire 950kms of east coast of Andhra Pradesh right from Srikakulam in the north to Nellore district in the south and the stretch between Kakinada and Itchapuram is enriched with rare minerals like ilmenite, rutile, garnet, monazite, silliminate, and zircon which were not explored of its value since ages.“Ilmenite is a titanium bearing mineral is used in making aircrafts, defence equipment and artillery due to its qualities of light weight and corrosion free nature. It can withstand any kind of environment, the reason for which it is used in making aircrafts. Most of the material used in aircraft making is of light weight titanium. Beach sand of the north coastal Andhra has huge reserves of this ilmenite,” said Prof C Kasipathi of department of geology, Andhra University. Of the total 375 million tonnes of proved ilmenite reserves across the country Andhra Pradesh stands first by having an estimated reserves of 116MT which was left unexploited till now. Kasipathi, known as man of mining and mineral exploration observes that minerals like ilmenite, rutile et al has huge demand in the international markets as they are found rarely and said that globally India stands third next to Australia and South Africa in having ilmenite reserves but stands sixth in production or mining of these minerals. He attributed several factors like lack of political will and other issues that made the country stand in sixth position in mining of the rarest of the rare mineral which has lot of demand in international markets. The Andhra Pradesh Mineral Development Corporation had recently signed three MoUs to mine these minerals with an estimated investment of Rs 7,500 crores from the firms along the coast in Srikakulam, Visakhapatnam and Vizianagaram districts. APMDC would be getting 26 percent equity in all the three MoUs without any investment. According to the first MoU, with Stork Handlges of Austria and Bothli Trades AG of Switzerland, they would mine these minerals in 8,237 hectares of area allotted to them at Lawsons Bay, Bheemili, Konada, Kandivalasa and Koyyam in Visakhapatnam and Vizianagaram districts, Bendi, Baruva and Donkur in Srikakulam district. Official sources said that the mining would provide direct employment to around 20,000 people in the north coastal Andhra districts. Another MoU was signed with Indian based VV Minerals allotting 1,500 hectares in Srikakulam district and the third one was signed with Trimax, another local agency, to which 10,000 hectares was allocated at Kalingapatnam and Bavanampadu. As per the agreement reached between the Austrian and Switzerland firms 10-lakh tones of ilmenite would be extracted per year. Sand separation plant would be setup to produce value added products like synthetic rutile and titanium dioxide. The project officer of the APMDC D Radhakrishna said that the mining work is yet to start in the region as only MoUs were signed and are waiting for some statutory clearances. However, environmentalists fear the project would create environmental imbalance in the region.