Nuclear agriculture comes to AP

ENC to step up coastal security

The great thorium loss, nuclear fuel-rich ore lost to ilmenite exports

By SNV Sudhir

Visakhapatnam, Sep 17, 2013: India is losing its most valuable mineral wealth monazite, containing thorium — a fuel for nuclear reactors — in the guise of ilmenite exports causing losses of lakhs of crores of rupees to the state coffers. Ilmenite is used in the making of titanium products.

Though no private individual or firm is allowed to mine monazite, which is available in abundance in the 950-km-long East Coast of Andhra Pradesh, from Srikakulam to Nellore, lakhs of tonnes of ilmenite, which also contains substantial amounts of monazite, is being mined annually along the AP and Odisha coast and exported from the Vizag port.

One tonne of monazite has 18 per cent thorium oxide, which means every tonne of monazite yields 180 kg thorium oxide. As per the Indian Minerals Year Book-2011, the Atomic Minerals Directorate For Exploration and Research of the Department of Atomic Energy estimates that India’s coastline has a deposit of 10.7 million tonnes of monazite from which it is possible to extract 8,46,477 tonnes of thorium.

Studies have pointed at the concentration of monazite in ilmenite.

It is difficult to obtain clean separation of ilmenite and monazite (the main impurity mineral containing radioactive elements), and physical intergrowths of the two minerals are, in fact, not uncommon. As a result, ilmenite concentrates obtained from such deposits often contain high levels of thorium and uranium, said .  J. Nell in his study ‘Thorium in high titania slag’ presented at the international heavy minerals conference ‘back to basics’ held at the South African Institute of mining and metallurgy.

Ilmenite sands also yield monazite up to 0.3 per cent.

One study points to less than 0.05 per cent of monazite in ilmenite samples. Of the total 4561.37 million tonnes of ilmenite reserves in India, AP tops the list with reserves of 103. 58 million tonnes followed by Odisha with 87.82 MT and Kerala with 79 MT. Tamil Nadu and Maharashtra also has Ilmenite reserves.

According to the data accessed by Deccan Chronicle, around 2.53 lakh tonnes of ilmenite sand was exported from Vizag port by Indian Rare Earths Limited and Trimex Sands Pvt Ltd for 2012-13 fiscal.  Interestingly ilmenite export from Vizag port had gone up over the years. While the exports were 62,000 tonnes in 2008-09, it went up to 1.15 lakh tonnes in 2009-10, 2.8 lakh tonnes in 2010-11 and 3.16 lakh tonne in 2011-12.

Ilmenite was exported to China, Japan, Netherlands, Russia and South Korea.

Two processing units opened by private parties in collaboration with the government in Srikakulam was supposed to separate monazite from beach sand while mining for other rare minerals.

But inquiries revealed that these companies do not have the mechanism to separate monazite from sand and ilmenite.

“We are not allowed to process or mine monazite. We only process ilmenite, rutile and zircon used in making titanium and other products. We don’t even have the mechanism to separate monazite from the sand mined from the beach,” said a representative of Trimex Sands Pvt Ltd.



 Trimex Sands Pvt. Ltd (TSPL) has been granted a mining lease for Srikurmam deposit covering an area of 7.2 sq kms stretch of coastline in the Srikakulam district. TSPL has set up Mining and Mineral separation facilities in Srikakulam to produce various heavy minerals Ilmenite, Rutile,  Zircon, Garnet  and Sillimanite  from beach sands based on the Srikurmam deposit.

Trimex Sands is also gearing up to mine at Kalingapatnam-Bhavanapadu Mineral Deposit, which is adjacent to Srikurmam deposit. The company was recently granted prospecting license for an area of 40 sq kms at Kalingapatnam-Bhavanapadu.  A Tamil Nadu based VV Minerals was also granted licenses to mine these heavy minerals barring monazite.

 A professor at department of geology of Andhra University, who visited these processing plants earlier, recollected that monazite separation was not in the flow charts of the system, machinery or the mechanism available there.

Among several States, Andhra Pradesh too has signed agreements for coastal sand mining by a number of private firms such as Bothli Trade of Switzerland, Trimex, V V Minerals and others, said former union government’s energy secretary, EAS Sarma.

“An independent investigation on this will reveal the facts including the losses to the public exchequer and the strategic implications of exploitation of valuable atomic and other minerals such as monazite. I understand that former and present senior political functionaries of the state government in Andhra Pradesh, and perhaps in the other states have acquired stakes in the above cited mining activity. Unless a central agency, independent of the state government, investigates this continuing plunder, the unsavoury details of the same may not get revealed. CVC may have to launch an investigation under its oversight,” Sarma added. He also wrote a letter in this regard to Prime Minister who also heads the DAE. 

As per the latest notification of Department of Atomic Energy vide ref. S.O.61(E)  dated January 20, 2006, these heavy minerals like ilemenite, zircon, rutile, sillimanite, garnet  are delisted from the prescribed  substances list and hence for the handling of these minerals licence from  Department of Atomic Energy under the Atomic Energy (Working of the Mines,  Minerals and Handling of Prescribed Substance) Rules, 1984 is not required. 

However, licence under the Atomic Energy Act is still required for handling or export
of monazite and Thorium, which are prescribed substances. And the DAE has not given any licences for export of beach sand with monazite, said  Minister of state in the PMO, V Narayanaswamy in a reply in Loksabha in Nov 2011. However, under the guidelines framed by the Atomic Energy  Regulatory Board (AERB) individual processors of beach sand have to separate and safely keep the monazite content of such sand.

• One tonne of monazite has 18 per cent thorium oxide present in it which  means every tonne of monazite would yield 180 kilo thorium oxide.

• As per the Indian Minerals Year Book- 2011 the Atomic Minerals Directorate For Exploration and Research of the Department of Atomic Energy (DAE), estimates India’s coastline has a deposit of 10.7 million tonnes of monazite from which it is possible to extract 8,46,477 tonnes of thorium metal.

• Of the total 4561.37 million tonnes of ilmenite reserves in India, Andhra Pradesh tops the list with reserves of 103. 58 million tonnes, followed by Odisha with 87.82 MT reserves and Kerala with 79 MT. Tamil Nadu and Maharashtra also have ilemenite reserves.

Ilemenite export from Vizag port

2008-09--------62,000 tonnes

2009-10--------1.15lakh tonnes

2010-11--------2.8lakh tonnes

2011-12--------3.16lakh tonnes

2012-13--------2.53lakh tonnes

• Ilemenite was exported to China, Japan, Netherlands, Russia and South Korea.

BJP eyes GVMC top chair, Sabbam to help

By SNV Sudhir

Visakhapatnam, July 1, 2014:  BJP which could get 4 MLAs and 2 MPs in AP in just concluded polls, due to its alliance with TD, seems to have now shifted focus towards, strengthening the party at grass roots on its own and its leaders are said to be eyeing Vizag mayor’s post.

Polls for GVMC could not be held along with other municipalities and corporations in the state as the officials could not complete the wards reorganization in the wake of merger of Bheemili and Anakapalle municipalities into GVMC. And the TD which is riding high on success wave is expected to urge the poll authorities to hold the polls as early as possible.

Though, the BJP won’t contest on its own, but will go with TD in the upcoming GVMC polls, party is said to be interested in fielding majority of its candidates in the wards and insist on mayor chair if the alliance gets majority seats. This, BJP leaders feel will help strengthening the party in Vizag which has one MP and an MLA. Earlier, BJP candidate, NSN Reddy was the first mayor of Vizag Municipal Corporation in 1979.

Later  legal luminary DV Subba Rao, who won as the city mayor on a TD ticket joined BJP. Though he contested for Vizag Lok Sabha on a BJP ticket twice, he lost. The present Vizag MP, Kambhampati Haribabu was also once BJP MLA during 1999.

Analysts are also pointing that, that the GVMC polls may create a rift between both the parties in sharing mayor and deputy mayor posts among them. There are also reports that, former Anakapalle MP Sabbam Hari who started his political career as city mayor will also help in strategizing for BJP during the GVMC polls.

Sabbam Hari, though officially didn’t join BJP, supported its Vizag Lok Sabha candidate Haribabu, by withdrawing from the race two days before the actual polling day. He filed nominations to contest for Vizag Lok Sabha as former chief minister N Kiran Kumar Reddy’s  Jai Samaikyandhra Party. 

Industrialists press panic button, industries on the verge of collapse in Vizag

By SNV Sudhir

Visakhapatnam, July 1, 2014:  Along with farmers, small and medium scale industrialists are anxiously waiting for rains. These industries have already pressed panic button due to acute power shortage for a few months. Now, they are of the opinion that there will be more power cuts for industries in the coming days as the government invariably gives preference to agriculture sector with Kharif in progress.

In Vizag there are around 150 High Tension (HT) category power intensive industries and around 600 Low Tension (LT), micro, small and medium industries. These industries have already started facing production losses or delay in supplying to the vendors leading to huge penalties which will have impact on the revenues, as the discom has started Peak Hour Load Restrictions (PHLR) from 6 pm to 12pm and allowing only lightening load during that time. Worst is the condition of ferro alloy factories which are around 30 in number in the district as the power restriction is from 6pm to 6am.

They have already cut the production by at least 40 percent due to power load restrictions and penalties. These micro, small and medium industries put together make a business turnover of Rs 200 cr per annum. Certain relief measures announced few months back failed to bring cheer to them. Around 20,000 workers directly and indirectly depend on these 600 units in the district.

The hardships of these industries have actually begun since September 2011 owing to Sakalajanula Samme, when the power generation has severely hit, but they were hopeful everything would be fine. But nothing has changed and it is close to four years. Since then these industries either had power holidays or load restrictions. Initially it was four days of power holiday, after that it was one day other than Sunday and now there are no power holidays, these load restrictions are said to be taking life out of these industries.

“We are more worried as there are no signs of rains even we entered July. If this situation continues, we will be hi hard where we will fail to revive this time. These industries are already reeling under severe crisis since more than 3 years. Heavy penalties by vendors, production losses have become a norm these days which is not at all good for the sector if this situation continues further. Government should announce some immediate relief measures more so a bail out package for micro, small and medium scale industries,”  Visakha Autonagar Small Scale Industrialists Welfare Association (VASSIWA), president, Ramakrishna Narappareddy, told this correspondent. 

Naidu’s timing bad, says Seer

By SNV Sudhir

Visakhapatnam, July 1, 2014: While the whole country is reeling under El Nino effect and anxiously waiting for the southwest monsoons, the seer of Sarada Peetham of Pendurthy, Swamy Swaroopanandendra Saraswathy, attributed the situation to weak planetary positions and the inauspicious time of Telugu Desam chief, N. Chandrababu Naidu, oath taking as AP Chief Minister on June 8 evening near Mangalagiri in Guntur district. Mr Naidu took oath bang at 7:27 in the evening.

The seer said, “Such an important event, like a king’s ascending the throne, should be done during the day time when Ravi (Sun), head of all the planets, is visible.” Incidentally, Narendra Modi took oath as Prime Minister in the evening after sunset too. Chandra (Moon), is a weak planet and Naidu took oath in the night after the sunset, which does not bode well for the rajyam (state).”

Hence there is deficit in rainfall this season. There is acute shortage of water and power for industries, households and farmers. The seer also observed that since the day of CMs oath-taking ceremony, AP has been witnessing a spate of tragedies that have resulted in death of many natives, for the very same reason.

He attributed the Beas tragedy, mishap at Visakh-apatanam Steel Plant or the recent gas pipeline explosion in East Godavari and building collapse in Chennai to the ill-timing. It may be worth mentioning here that after a lot of brainstorming and hectic consultations with various experts for fixing muhurtams for important occasions, Mr Naidu chose to take oath on June 8, 20 days after the poll results were announced.

The seer predicted that the natural and manmade calamities would continue till December due to Kuja (Mars) Sthambana that begun 6 months ago and would draw to a close on July 17 and continuation of planets like Ravi (Sun), Sani (Saturn) and Rahu (Dragon head) in Tula (Libra) zodiac till December.

“I have nothing against Mr Naidu, but he was misguided. State is in shambles and he could have dealt such important occasions in a more serious manner. This situation is likely to continue next year also. It’s better, if the government takes some remedial measures,” he added.

Ore caught in T tangle

By SNV Sudhir

Visakhapatnam, June 30, 2014: Doubts are being raised over the allotment of Bayyaram iron ore mines, now in Telangana to the Navaratna steelmaker RINL, the corporate entity of Visakhapatanam Steel Plant (VSP) as both the state governments are at loggerheads on various issues ranging from fee reimbursement to power sharing.

Bayyaram mines are very crucial for Vizag steel plant, as it is on an ambitious expansion plan of increasing its production from the present 3mtpa to 6 mtpa at a cost of Rs 12,502 crs and its needs captive iron ore mines.  

At present RINL depends upon supplies by NMDC for its iron ore requirement. RINL has long term agreements with NMDC on iron ore supply. For every tonne of steel capacity, the company needs about 1.5 tonne of iron ore.  RINL’s production cost is 70 per cent compared to 53-54 per cent of SAIL and 35 per cent of TISCO due to lack of captive iron ore mines.

There is no further progress on the allotment of mines to Vizag based, RINL, other than in principal approval by the then state government in the undivided Andhra Pradesh in April last year. 

The then chief minister N Kiran Kumar Reddy allotted iron ore mines to RINL, spread over in an area of 2,500 hectares of land at Guduru, Warangal district, 2,500 hectares at Bayyaram in Khammam , and 342 hectares at Bheemadevarapalli in Karimnagar district.  

RINL, despite being major steel producer in the country and one of the major integrated steel plants is being run without any captive iron ore and coal mines. For Iron ore securitization, RINL has applied for 7 mining leases in Andhra Pradesh starting from 2005.

RINL has also signed a MoU with the state government with a commitment for an investment of Rs. 42,400 crs in the state and with that assurance the state government had agreed to facilitate the allotment of iron ore mines to RINL on priority.

“There is no scientific study taken up by any of the government agencies in these allotted mining areas until now. The exploration of the mining areas can be taken up only after the scientific study, which can’t be done without a prospective license issued by the Telangana government and also various other approvals, NOCs from various central government agencies. For all this there should be a beginning which is giving actual possession of the mining area to us and scientific study. It is being delayed now since more than a year. RINL would also investing around Rs1,000crs for the development of the mines allotted which would create employment for around 1,000 people, both direct and indirect,” said a senior official of RINL.