Relies on Lokayukta report while filing reply in Supreme Court

The State government has washed its hands of a petition in the Supreme Court seeking a probe by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) into the alleged role of three former chief ministers — S M Krishna, N Dharam Singh and H D Kumaraswamy —in illegal mining, and decided to leave it to the Central Empowered Committee (CEC) to take an appropriate decision in this regard.

Dharwad-based non-government organisation, Samaj Parivartan Samudaya (SPS), which is the main petitioner in the public interest litigation (writ petition No. 562 of 2009) on illegal mining in Karnataka at the Supreme Court, has alleged that D K Shivakumar, former Karnataka minister, was involved in illegal mining activity.

The NGO is filing an interlocutory application in the Supreme Court on serious illegalities, irregularities and criminalities indulged in during the period 2000-2005 by Shivakumar and eight iron ore trading companies.

About sixty miners were trapped at Zimbabwe's Mimosa mine following an accident on Monday evening, the president of the local miner workers union said.

"There are 85 people who were trapped at 5:30 pm yesterday but more than 20 have been rescued so far. A bearing which moves the conveyer collapsed and the conveyer belt caught fire," Shadreck Pelewelo, the president of the National Mine Workers Union of Zimbabwe, told Reuters by telephone on Tuesday.

The trapped men were in good condition and were receiving food, he added.

Large stretches of salmon-spawning streams and thousands of acres of wetlands would be wiped out if a large-scale mining project were to be built in south-western Alaska’s copper-rich Bristol Bay region, according to a report issued by the Environmental Protection Agency.
The report, while not directly addressing it, is a potential blow to the massive Pebble copper and gold mine operation proposed by an international alliance of mining interests, and opposed by environmentalists and local native groups.

New Delhi The government is set to consider a proposal for a complete ban on private-public joint ventures (JVs) for developing mineral blocks allocated to state-run corporations and public sector undertakings under a special dispensation. The move would hit the plans of Adani Mining, Moser Baer, Vedanta, Monnet Ispat and the Jaypee Group, among others, in the minerals and metals business.

Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik has voiced his opposition to some provisions of the Mines and Minerals (Development & Regulation) Bill-2011, stating that the bill if enacted in the current form would be a departure from federal structure of the constitution.

Pointing out that regulation of mines and mineral development is basically a state subject, Patnaik said that the MMDR Bill attempts to transfer certain powers and functions being exercised by states to the Centre.

State-owned trading giant MMTC has inked pacts with Japanese and South Korean steel companies including Posco, to supply 2.8 million tonnes of iron ore annually for a period of three years.

"We have signed iron ore supply contracts with five Japanese firms and one South Korean company for a period of three years. The exports are expected to start from July this year,"

Coal India has introduced a more flexible policy for resettling and rehabilitating people affected by its mining projects, the government said on Thursday.

Andhra Pradesh Governor E S L Narasimhan is likely to use his special powers to cancel 10 mining leases issued for bauxite mining in Visakhapatnam district. The leases were issued between 2005 and 2009, and included areas in forests and tribal lands in Eastern Ghats and Aaraku Valley in Vizag. The Centre has requested Narasimhan to use powers given to all governors in Scheduled Areas under the Constitution to cancel the leases.