Ministry of Mines Targets Mine Waste Dumping with New Regulations

The Central Government has taken adequate steps by making provisions under the Mineral Conservation and Development Rules, 2017 [MCDR, 2017] to ensure environment friendly dumping of mine waste to minimise impact on the environment and society. Under the existing law, the miners are mandated to store the waste material on non-mineralized area of Mining lease to avoid its mixing with useful mineral content as well as on impervious ground to avoid any degradation of ground water. Further, materials such as waste rock and overburden are required to be back-filled into the mine excavations with a view to restore the land to its original form as far as possible.

The MMDR Act, 1957 was amended through the MMDR Amendment Act, 2021 with effect from 28.03.2021 whereby all restrictions on transfer of mineral concessions have been removed. Thus, the process for leasing and transfer of mines has been streamlined.

As per existing law, sustainable mining practices are required to be adopted by all mining lease holders according to Chapter-V of Mineral Conservation and Development Rules (MCDR), 2017 which provides for precaution against air pollution and noise, prevention of discharge of toxic liquid, control of surface subsidence etc.

Further, as per Rule 35(4) of MCDR, 2017 every holder of a mining lease shall achieve at least three-star rating within a period of four years from the date of commencement of mining operations and thereafter maintain the same on year-on-year basis.

The year wise number of 3 star and above rated mines for the last three years and the 5 star rated mines felicitated is given below: