Two day investors meet launched in Guwahati to give a fillip to mineral and mining industry in North Eastern region

Two day investors meet launched in Guwahati to give a fillip to mineral and mining industry in North Eastern region

A two day Investors’ Meet went underway on Friday in Guwahati, which is being organised by the Ministry of Mines and Ministry of Development of North Eastern Region in association with Governments of North Eastern States and Federation of Indian Mineral Industry, to encourage investment in exploration and exploitation of the minerals for the development of mineral based industry in the North Eastern States.
Addressing on the occasion, B K Handique, Minister of Mines and Development of North East Region (DoNER), said that there is mineral potential in the region, its development needs special emphasis because of technical, financial and organisational problems. He said that the mineral sector needs special attention as mineral industry requires heavy investments, long gestation period, multiplicity of disciplines and activities involved between mineral location, production and consumption.

The Minister said that the North Eastern States invariably express their strong desire to pursue development of Mineral Industries in their respective States. The states need to put in place proper mining laws and fiscal regimes to attract investors.
Handique informed that the Centre has taken several initiatives in National Mineral Policy – 2008 to empower the States, bring transparency and make the regulatory environment conducive to private investment. The Minister said that Indian Bureau of Mines, IBM and State Directorates of Mining will be strengthened with manpower, equipment and skill set to improve the regulatory environment and host of other measures. For capacity building of the States GSI has setup a Regional Training Institute for North Eastern Region at Shillong with the field unit at Aizwal for providing training in survey, exploration, geotechnical investigation and fundamental geosciences. In addition to vast resources, oil and gas large reserves of non-metallic/industrial minerals like coal, limestone, dolomite, quartzite, clays, dimension stones etc. are available in the North Eastern Region. The reserve of various minerals estimated by GSI in the region are 909 million tons of coal, 8793 million tones of limestone, 246.75 million tons of dolomite, 3.13 million tones of quartzite, 84.7 million tons of graphite, 26.32 million tons of clays, 0.71 million tons of fireclay besides significant quantities of silica sand and dimensional stone. The Meet is expected to give a direction and fillip to the much needed impetus to the mining and resultant employment and development in the region.
Tarun Gogai, Chief Minister of Assam, Santha Sheela Nair, Secretary, Ministry of Mines, Sidharath Rungta, President, FIMI, Officers of the Government of North Eastern States, Government of India and other representatives of mining industry were also present on the occasion.
Courtesy: Ministry of Mines release