Mining of Oceans to Unlock Opportunities for Indian industry

Offshore Areas Minerals (Development and Regulation) Act to be amended to give domestic exploration a boost

· Over 400 companies from 19 countries are displaying their latest products and technologies at the IETF.

India is looking to mine oceans, which will unlock huge opportunities and new areas of operations for Indian Industries, said Vivek Bhardwaj, Secretary, Ministry of Mines, Government of India during a conference on 16 February on the sidelines of the silver jubilee edition of the International Engineering & Technology Fair 2023, organized by the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII), in collaboration with Finland Chamber of Commerce in India, NSIC, and Government ministries in New Delhi. He said that the Government is amending the Offshore Areas Minerals (Development and Regulation) Act, which is open for comments from the industry.

“We need to increase domestic exploration and we have enlisted 13 private exploration companies as the opportunities are immense. We also need to look at acquiring foreign assets. We sent a team to Argentina to identify mines for investments and we have two lithium mines and one copper mine there. Within the coming period, we will shortlist projects to invest, which will be open to the private sector,” Mr. Bhardwaj said. He also urged the industry to get into organized recycling to make India the recycling hub of the world. Talking about the opportunities and possibilities in metals and mining industry, he said that the Government has proposed amendments in the MMDR Act to encourage junior miners. The Mines Secretary was speaking at a conference titled ‘Vision 2047: Atmanirbharta in Minerals and Metals’ to discuss the roadmap and opportunities in the metals & mining industry of India.

Koushik Chatterjee, Chairman, Metal & Metallurgy Expo 2023 and Executive Director and Group CFO, Tata Steel Ltd said that metals and metallurgy sector is the foundation of India’s economic growth and underlined the need to develop a sustainable metals and metallurgy Industry, which is aligned with India’s Sustainable Development and Net-Zero goals.

Gajendra Panwar, MD, Danieli India Ltd said that the industry should build modern steel plants capable of delivering premium quality steel to become globally competitive. Noting that India needs to become carbon neutral, he said that Green Hydrogen is a great option to bring down greenhouse gases emissions. But, until it is available and affordable, we must look for other technologies to use natural gases to bring down carbon emissions, he added.

Sunil Duggal, Chairman CII National Committee on Mining and Group CEO, Vedanta Ltd said that the enormous potential of the mining and metallurgy sector needs to be unlocked and added that the industry is fully committed to achieve Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s vision to make India Aatmanirbhar in coming years.

Over 400 companies from 19 countries are displaying their latest products and technologies at the IETF. Finland is the focus country at the IETF this year. The silver jubilee edition of IETF includes 3 concurrent shows and 9 focus shows. The latest innovations in Advanced Building Technologies, Artificial Intelligence, Capital Machinery, Digital Gaming, Fluid Power, Factory & Plant Maintenance, Healthcare, Industrial Automation & Robotics, Modern Logistics Solutions, Metal & Metallurgy, and Water & Solid Waste Management are being presented at the event being held during 16-18 February.