Tungsten exploration: TN blames it on Centre

Chennai: No permission has been granted to Hindustan Zinc Limited, a subsidiary of the controversial Vedanta group, for carrying out any mineral exploration in the in Melur taluk of Madurai district, the State government clarified on Thursday as protests against the proposed mining project, to be carried out on 2015.5 hectares of land in the villages of Kulanipatti and Melur, touched a crescendo. An official press release said that it was the Union Government that floated the tenders for auctioning the tungsten block spread out in 2015.51 hectares on June 24 and finally awarded the lease to Hindustan Zinc limited on November 7 for mineral mining and research though the State government had neither received any application from the company nor had given any permission related to mining. The preferred bidder for the project, in this case Hindustan Zinc, would have to obtain forest, wildlife, environmental and groundwater clearances that are issued by different departments before starting the mining operation and very importantly should get the local grama sabha’s consent to start the mineral exploration itself. Among the other approvals that the mining company would have to get from the government are mining plan approval, consent to establish, permission for opening a mine, permission for installation and trail operation of the various equipment used in the project, railway siding approval, permission for diesel storage and power line approvals.