The Hindu : Front Page : SAIL eyeing iron ore mines in Kanjamalai hill

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SAIL eyeing iron ore mines in Kanjamalai hill

S. Ramesh

The project, once completed, will make SSP an integrated steel plant

Photo: P. Goutham

for resource: A view of the Kanjamalai hill in Salem district. —

SALEM: The run for the resource-rich Kanjamalai, a hill located near Salem, has acquired a new dimension with Union Steel Minister Ram Vilas Paswan appealing to the Tamil Nadu Government to allocate the iron ore mines in the hills to the public sector Steel Authority of India Limited (SAIL).

Mr. Paswan, participating at the foundation stone laying ceremony for the Salem Steel Plant’s (SSP) modernisation and expansion project recently, said “the mines at the hills are at the core of the current expansion plan of Salem Steel”.

The project, once completed, will make the SSP an integrated steel plant, enabling it to produce high quality stainless steel. If the plant is able to source iron ore locally, it will benefit the SSP in many ways. The supply of iron ore from Kanjamalai is a key to the growth of the SSP, industry sources here point out.

The Tamil Nadu Iron Ore Mining Company (TIMCO), a joint venture between Jindal Vijayanagar Steels and the Tamil Nadu Industrial Development Corporation (TIDCO), which is already in the race for the iron ore at the hill, has planned to invest about Rs. 400 crore to take up mining in Kanjamalai, where an area of over 635 acres has been earmarked with a potential for about 75 million tonnes of iron ore. TIMCO will supply the iron ore to JSW Steel’s Salem facility.

But people and the industrial community here insist that the public sector SSP, which is on an expansion mode, should also be given the opportunity to mine iron ore from the hill.

With the fresh request from Mr. Paswan, the demand has gained more support. SAIL also planned a Special Economic Zone exclusively for steel at the SSP premises.

Meanwhile, people in the villages, in and around the hill, are strongly opposing any mining activity in the Kanjamalai reserve forests, as it, they claim, will affect their livelihood and the environment.

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