Coal news and updates

Mineral production declines 1.9% m-o-m in August

October 17: the Indian index of mineral production of mining and quarrying sector in August 2013 was lowered by 1.9% compared to that of the preceding month (July 2013) according to provisional data released by the Ministry of Mines.

The total value of mineral production (excluding atomic and minor minerals) in the country during August 2013 was Rs 16,099 crore.

According to the data, the mineral sector has shown a negative growth of 0.2% during August 2013 compared to August 2012.

Petroleum (crude) was the highest contributor at Rs 5,806 crore (36%), followed by coal (Rs 4,590 crore), iron ore (Rs 2,313 crore), natural gas (utilized) (Rs 1858 crore), lignite (Rs 365 crore and limestone (Rs 342 crore).

These six minerals together contributed about 95% of the total value of mineral production in August 2013.

Production of coal was 38.2 million tons (mt) in August while that of lignite 2.9 mt , natural gas (utilized) 2902 million cu. m., petroleum (crude) 3.2  mt, bauxite 1.376 mt, chromite 166,000 tons, copper conc. 12,000 tons, gold 125 kg , iron ore 115,000 tons, lead conc. 15,000 tons, manganese ore 175,000  tons, zinc conc. 129,000 tons, apatite & phosphorite 77,000 tons, dolomite 537,000 tones, limestone 19.7 mt, magnesite 14,000 tons and diamond 3,810 carat.

In August 2013, the output of diamond increased by 63.0%, gold 28.9%, lignite 14.8%, copper conc. 9.3%, dolomite 5.6%, magnesite 3.1% and iron ore 0.3 %. The production of petroleum (crude) remained flat.

However, the production of natural gas (utilized) decreased by 0.6%, manganese ore 3.7%, coal 3.9%, zinc conc. 6.1%, lead conc. 14.0%, limestone 15.4%, chromite 17.0%, apatite & phosphorite 18.6% and bauxite 29.6%.