The royalty is only for mineral not for raw sand - Govt., of India confirmation - Here is proof

As per the provisions of Section 9 of MMDR Act, 1957 royalty is payable at the rate prescribed in second schedule of the said Act only for the processed minerals and not for the residuary sand.  This statutory fact has been confirmed  by Govt. of India to the District Collector who in turn has communicated the same to the Commissioner of Geology and Mining.

There is no violation by beach mineral industries - Reply in the parliament confirm the same

When approaching for study of replenishment of minerals, Atomic Minerals division (AMD) and National Institute of Ocean Technology (NIOT) replied that, they have no facility to carryout the replenishable study. Hence the preliminary study was carried out by the former State Director of Geology and Mining and again studied through Madras University and the reports were submitted to IBM for their reference.

There is no provision either in the MMDR Act or Rules framed thereunder or the mining lease deed to fix up the quantity of mineral permitted to  mine from a particular mine. The only requirement is the mineral consumed or transported should be royalty suffered under section 9 of MMDR Act. Moreover even if the mining quantity is more than the quantity mentioned in the approved mining plan, this does not comes under the purview of illegal mining. In case mining operation is carried out in a non lease hold area, then only it amounts illegal mining. In case, the production is more than the tentative quantity mentioned in the approved mining plan above the tolerance limit of 20% and if the lessee failed to get modified mining plan, it amounts violation of MCDR, 1988 and it does amounts illegal mining. This has been confirmed by the Honourable Minister in the Parliament.  Relevant portion is given below.

Beach Mineral Replinishable Mining is a permissible activity - Govt., of India High Level Committee report copy

Based on a complaint from Mr.Dhayadevadas, with a view to finding out the truth whether the beach minerals are replenishable or not in nature, Govt. of India constituted a committee under the Chairmanship of Mr.Nagar, Chairman (Retd), IREL and officials from AMD, NIOT, NIO and State Geological officials from Tamilnadu, Kerala, Andhra Pradesh.  The committee held several rounds of discussions and inspections and submitted a report to Govt of India.   According to their findings, it has been established that the beach sand minerals are replenishable in nature.   Besides, the report says that it is not an offence if the replenishable resources are legitimately exploited within their leasehold areas.  The report further enlightens the fact that it is not physically possible to make the precise quantification of the replenishable resources and even if any attempt is made to do so, it will not be an accurate one.  The report further recommends that the private consultancy of technically competent group may be entrusted with the responsibility of evaluation of replenishable beach minerals at regular intervals namely season to season.   Excerpts from Chapter-III of the above report is given below.

We regret having carried a one sided report - New Indian Express, Cochin Clarified

New Indian Express published a wrong news based on the inputs from one of our Company VV Mineral’s competitor from Kerala. By seeing the same, Mr.S.Vaikundarajan, Managing Director of VV Mineral send clarification about the news with relevant proofs and links. After verifying the fact Indian Express issued Clarification on 21.03.2018 in 6^th page.

They further mentioned that, “we regret having carried a one sided report”.  Thus Indian Express established that, they are keeping the ethics of the Journalism.  Our best wishes to  New Indian Express, Kerala. The clarification news and link is given below.

http://epaper.newindianexpress.com/1587027/The-New-Indian-Express-Kochi/21032018#page/6/1  

What ever mineral deposited in the lease area, VVM can mine - Govt., of India confirmation

Since these Beach Minerals are replenishable beach placers, the lessee can collect all the minerals irrespective of thickness and number of days and the only requirement is, the quantity etc., should be declared in the monthly return submitted by the lessee – This has been confirmed by Govt., of India, Deputy Controller of Mines, Indian Bureau of Mines, which is given below.

The State Govt., has no power to control beach minerals - It is with Central Government

Mining leases are granted under the provisions of MMDR Act. If it is major minerals, the lease should be granted in accordance with the rules framed by Govt., of India. If it is First Schedule Mineral for all the activities Central Govt., approval is required. Since at the time of grant of mining lease to VV Mineral, Ilmenite, Rutile etc., are First Schedule Mineral. Hence prior approval from Govt., of India have  been obtained by the State Government and Central Government imposed necessary conditions in terms of monazite which were complied by VV Mineral as well as other lessees. The State Govt., has the power to frame rule or notify policy only in terms of minor minerals such blue metal, granite stone, gravel sand etc., These beach minerals all are First Schedule Minerals and hence it comes under the Central Government control. Hence the State Govt., cannot even frame rule or policy for these First Schedule minerals.

According to section 5(2)(b) of MMDR Act, for grant of mining lease, a mining plan duly approved by Govt., of India is mandatory.  The above said mining plans will contain various details such as the method of processing and method of mining etc., in addition to the tentative production plan for first five years. The above quantity is only tentative and 20% variation will be permissible, if the variation is above 20%, then a modified mining plan to be obtained from Govt., of India.

The mining plans are prepared by the Recognized Qualified Persons (RQP) from the list approved by Govt., of India. The qualification and experience of the RQPs are given in Rule 22(C) of MC Rules, 1960 duly notified by Govt., of India. The mining plans prepared by the qualified RQPs are approved by Govt., of India under the provisions of MCDR, 1988. No powers have been delegated under the above said rules to any state government authority. The above powers are vested with Central Govt., authorities. Moreover since these all replenishable  beach placers, deposited due to wind and wave action, no one cannot calculate the exact quantity of the minerals deposited. The quantity may vary due to various factors. The above all details were given in the mining plan and approvals are obtained from Govt., of India. 

VV Mineral and 3 other companies are permitted to store monazite under the control of Central Government - Minister reply in Parliament

VV Mineral have been advised to store the monazite rich tailings in separate trench under the institutional control of AERB. The above fact of the guidelines issued by AERB / Atomic Energy Department have been placed on the floor of the parliament by the Honourable Minister which is given below.

Recently Modi enter MOU with Japan Government for Technology of monazite

Though India has no technology to produce rare earth from monazite and DAE’s technology also failed, India is importing large quantity of rare earth elements year by year. After the Honourable Prime Minister Mr.Modi Government assume charges they want to reduce rare earth import to save foreign exchange outgo.   Accordingly Modi Government enter MOU with Japan Government for this technology and Japan company Toyota erected one factory in Visakapatinam of Andhra Pradesh, with IREL supplying the raw material.

Consequent upon deletion of Ilmenite, Rutile, Zircon, etc., from the list of atomic minerals, the Atomic Energy department has issued guidelines to obtain only a license from AERB regarding radiation and not any license from the Atomic Energy Department.  As per another condition imposed by Atomic Energy Department, it is mandatory that the lessees should employ trained technical personnel certified by AERB to meet any exigency of radiation in their plants as Radiological Safety Officer (RSO).   Furthermore, depending on the percentage of monazite content in the placer minerals monazite contained residuary sand should be used for refilling the pits at the mine sites or preserved and stored safely in separate trenches under the institutional control of AERB.

Since monazite are easily available in overseas countries, Govt., company IRE Ltd stop monazite production from 2004 - Reply in Parliament

This fact of the matter was tabled on the floor of the Parliament by the  Honourable Minister of Govt. of India which is given below.

Simple rules for beach minerals introduced by Shri. Vajpayee increase the export earnings. So Congress Govt., also through planning commission ease the rules for beach minerals

Subsequently, with a view to attracting foreign investment on placer mineral mining in India, the High level committee of the Planning Commission of India recommended to delist Ilmenite, Rutile, Zircon, Leucoxene which are not used for production of Atomic Energy or Research from the list of prescribed substances. Consequently, in 2005 the DAE convened a plenary session meeting of all the lessees of beach sand minerals in India along with all the State Govt., officers.   The above two recommendation of the Planning Commission  were accepted by DAE and accordingly they de-list Ilmenite, Rutile, Zircon, Leucoxene from the list of prescribed substances.

Govt., of India created Atomic Minerals Division (AMD) exclusively for conducting geological exploration for evaluating the reserves of Atomic Minerals with particular reference to the contents of Uranium and Thorium in all the areas like coastal and inland.  AMD studied all the areas in Tamilnadu which shows the fact that the monazite content is less than half a percent in East Coast and a detailed report in the form of a book was also released.  

The regulatory measures with regard to exploitation of monazite by private people were evolved by Atomic Energy department only to protect the general public from the radiation effect.   However, IREL which had the monopolistic right to exploit the monazite as per the guidelines of Atomic Energy Department too were engaged in export of these minerals.   Since there were no restrictions or control in foreign countries in respect of handling of monazite and consequently even private enterprises were allowed to process monazite in their countries, the price of monazite got dwindled drastically in foreign market.  Since there was no demand for Indian monazite abroad, IREL stopped processing and export of monazite in 2004 itself.