NMDC halts iron ore mining after Chhattisgarh protests

India's state-owned producer NMDC has suspended its entire iron ore operations in the central Indian state of Chhattisgarh in recent days because of protests by indigenous tribes.

"We did not want to close operations but were forced to shut down by protestors," an NMDC executive told Argus, adding operations were likely to resume today.

NMDC has two major mining complexes in the Bailadila mountain range of Chhattisgarh. One of these operations has been closed for four to six days, while another has been closed for two days, the executive said. NMDC recorded output of 32.47mn t in the 2018-19 fiscal year ended 31 March, of which 23.39mn t was produced at the Bailadila complexes.

Protests against NMDC started as indigenous tribes claimed environmental damage and damaging religious sentiment following the company's plan to mine iron ore at Deposit 13 in Bailadila, which the tribes claim includes a sacred hill. The state government of Chhattisgarh on 11 June suspended all development work on the mine for an indefinite period.

NMDC had suspended operations at one of its two iron ore mines in the south Indian state of Karnataka in November last year because of a royalty dispute with the state government, which has headed to the courts.

Large-scale Indian integrated steel mills such as JSW Steel, Essar Steel and Vizag Steel depend on NMDC for a large part of their iron ore requirements.