Coal news and updates

Index of mineral production rises 0.1% in July m-o-m

September 17: The index of mineral production in the mining and quarrying sector in July 2013 rose by 0.1% compared to that in June, a government release said.

However, the mineral sector has shown a negative growth of 2.3% during July 2013 compared to that in the corresponding month of the previous year.

The total value of mineral production (excluding atomic and minor minerals) in the country in July 2013 stood at Rs 16,641 crore. The contribution of petroleum (crude) was the highest at Rs 5,804 crore (35%). Next in the order of importance were coal at Rs 4,899 crore, iron ore at Rs 2,472 crore, natural gas (utilised) at Rs 1,868 crore, lignite at Rs 308 crore and limestone at Rs 398 crore. These six minerals together contributed about 95% of the total value of mineral production in July 2013.

The production level of important minerals in July 2013 were thus: Coal, 399 lakh tons, lignite 25 lakh tons, natural gas (utilised) 2,918 million cu.m., petroleum (crude) 32 lakh tons, bauxite 2,034,000 tons, chromite 214,000 tons, copper conc. 11,000 tons, gold 97 kg., iron ore 119 lakh tons, lead conc. 18,000 tons, manganese ore 191,000 tons, zinc conc. 137,000 tons, apatite & phosphorite 57,000 tons, dolomite 522,000 tons, limestone 235 lakh tons, magnesite 15,000 tons and diamond 2,338 carat.

In fact, in July 2013, the output of bauxite increased by 38.3%, limestone 4.9%, zinc conc.3.9%, iron ore 2.6%, petroleum (crude) 1.8%, natural gas (utilized) 1.7% and dolomite 0.4%. However, production of coal decreased by 0.8%, manganese ore 2.5%, lead conc. 3.6%, copper conc. 6.6%, apatite & phosphorite 7.4%, magnesite 7.8%, chromite 11.9%, diamond 14.5%, gold 21.8% and lignite 32.2%.