Weekly Mining News: 11-02-2024

1.       Odisha govt’s revenue receipts from mining stood at Rs 38,075.07 crore, increase of 24.26% compared to 2021-22, a recent govt report published in Feb-24 2.       30 Congress MLAs in Chhattisgarh Assembly Suspended for Opposing Mining in Hasdeo Forest on the decision to fell over 15,000 trees

3.       Billionaire Adani secures ore for $1.2bn copper smelter: They signed contracts to buy 1.6-million tons a year of copper concentrate for the world’s largest single-location smelter in Mundra in the western state of Gujarat

4.       No mining activities will be allowed near temples: Goa Chief Minister Pramod Sawant

5.       No GST on mining lease royalty says Madras HC. A division bench of the Madras High Court, consisting of Justices R Mahadevan and Mohammed Shaffiq, has restrained Tamil Nadu govt from recovering the GST on seigniorage/royalty towards mining leases until a Constitution bench of the Supreme Court takes a decision on the issue.

6.       New sand policy soon, says Telangana CM Revanth as 25% of sand mined illegally.

7.       IPO-Bound Ola Electric Mulls Bidding For Lithium Mining Rights. Getting the mining rights for lithium will help the startup, which is constructing its Ola gigafactory with a projected production capacity of 20 GWh. The Centre has put 5.9 Mn tonnes of lithium reserves found in Jammu and Kashmir on auction

8.       Bill Gates-backed mining start-up- KoBold Metals- which uses Artifical Intelligence (AI) to explore for materials essential to the green-energy transition, said that it has discovered a huge copper deposit in Zambia.

9.       Australia govt invests in wind farm to power BHP copper mine. The Australian government, through the Clean Energy Finance Corporation, has announced a A$99-million investment in Neoen’s Goyder wind farm and big battery project, which will provide electricity to BHP’s copper mine in the northern part of South Australia.

10.   Brazilian miner Vale and newcomer Hydnum Steel have signed a memorandum of understanding to study building an iron-ore briquette plant at Hydnum Steel’s first factory in Spain, which will be powered by “green” hydrogen.