Govt launches portal for star rating of mines

The Dollar Business Bureau 

The government has launched a new web portal to facilitate smooth flow of information pertaining to the mining sector of India.

The portal also contains a framework for rating mines, a step aimed at miners to adopt sustainable practices for a higher rating.

“The Ministry, through the Indian Bureau of Mines, has developed a template for the star rating of mines. The web portal will have all the ratings of the mines and will also have information of the Sustainable Development Framework (SDF) for the mining sector,” Mines Secretary Balvinder Kumar said.

The star rating system will rate mines out of five stars. It is a two-layered system, which will be based on self-evaluations by the mine operators. It will be then approved by the Indian Bureau of Mines.

“There will be random third-party checks to see whether the information provided by the operators is correct, and there should be penalties for those providing false information,” Mines Minister Piyush Goyal said speaking at the event.

The rating system will be based on parameters including steps taken by mines to rehabilitate and resettle the people affected; to mitigate an environmental impact of the mines, and to adopt international standards for their operations and reporting.

“The main objective of this system is to bring all mines to minimum 4- or 5-star rating in the shortest possible time,” Kumar said.

Goyal said the steel ministry was also looking to relax export duties on iron ore.