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Vedanta's Goa iron ore mine gets environmental nod amid controversy

Vedanta's Goa Iron Ore Controversy | Unresolved Allegations and Environmental Concerns Shadow Vedanta’s Goa Iron Ore Mining Project Approval

By Ayaskant Das
New Update
iron ore mining
Iron ore mining | Digital illustration | Courtesy: Special arrangement

A central government expert review panel has recommended environmental clearance (EC) for a Vedanta Group-owned Goa iron ore mining project. However, it has not held the corporate entity accountable for previous accusations of illegal mining in it. Records indicate that, though the mine has been active since 1941, initially as five separate blocks and later as one combined block, the approval for clearance was based on the premise that it is a new project.

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The Expert Appraisal Committee (EAC) – an advisory panel of the Union Ministry of Environment, Forests & Climate Change – recommended environmental clearance for Vedanta Group’s Bicholim iron ore mining project in a meeting held on 26 December 2023. A review of the EAC meeting’s minutes indicates that the recommendation was based on a key letter from the Goa government, which essentially cleared Vedanta Group of any past illegal mining allegations vis-à-vis Bicholim.

“(b) M/s Vedanta Ltd was not the erstwhile lessee of the said Block prior to auction. (c) The matter of illegal mining in the State of Goa is under investigation by the Special Investigation Team (SIT),” states the letter issued on 25 July 2023 by Goa’s Directorate of Mines & Geology.

However, the letter’s content contradicts the fact that the Supreme Court of India, in a significant ruling in October 2014, termed all mining operations underway in Goa after 22 November 2007 as illegal. The letter also fails to mention that Vedanta Group indeed held a lease for the Goa iron ore block, but it was identified by different lease numbers at that time, and not as Bicholim.

The five leaseholds, which now comprise Bicholim, had been leased out for Goa’s iron ore mining by the state’s erstwhile Portuguese government to an entity that was later acquired by a Vedanta Group subsidiary company. The Probe has the copy of an order issued by the Goa government in July 2017, amalgamating the five mining leases of the Vedanta Group subsidiary, Sesa Mining Corporation Limited.

“… you are hereby granted a mining lease number 08/AMLG (ML - 5)/SMCL/17 against your five amalgamated leases viz T.C. Nos. 11/41, 12/41, 13/41, 14/41, and 15/41, having an area of 478.5206 Ha,” states the order issued by the Directorate of Mines & Geology upon Sesa Mining.

In June 2009, the Vedanta Group had taken over these mining assets by virtue of acquiring VS Dempo & Co Private Limited (later renamed as Sesa Resources Limited) along with its fully-owned subsidiary, Dempo Mining Corporation (later renamed as Sesa Mining Corporation Limited).

The geographical coordinates of the five different leases (T.C. No - 11, T.C. No - 12, T.C. No - 13, T.C. No - 14, T.C. No - 15), when amalgamated, correspond exactly with the boundaries of the Bicholim block.

The Directorate’s order also reveals that Sesa Mining had itself requested consolidation of the five different leases while acknowledging that those were geographically contiguous and had been granted by Goa’s erstwhile

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