Facts & Figures

The Mining Industry in the State of Goa has witnessed several cyclic trends of ups and downs since its inception. While the Ores excavated have been heavily influenced by the Importing countries, primarily because of its Geographical location and its lower tenor would only permit it for blending purposes to importing countries.

As such, the export driven industry has contributed significantly over the years as a reliable supplier of ores (although limited, when compared to other larger competitors in Australia and Brazil, ensured local employment, created ancillary economic activity generating a sizeable revenue collection for the State and Centre too.

Goan Iron ores

Goan ores are essentially low-grade iron ores, having limited domestic demand. Mining industry in Goa, is also one of the major economic backbone for the State of Goa.

Characteristics of Goan Ores

a) Iron Ore naturally excavated in Goa is relatively of lower grades (<56% Fe) compared to rest of the country. Goan ore is predominantly fines with approximately 80:20 Fines: Lumps ratio.

b) The Goan mining industry is located in close proximity to the ports. The inland waterways provide highest efficiency in terms of transportation to the port resulting in a competitive cost for export when blended with higher grades.

In contrast, the Goan mining industry is located away from the domestic steel plants. The cost of transportation to domestic plant is much higher. As a result, Export market is the only feasible market.

Investments have been made for optimizing innovative loading at Ports to cater to inbound vessels and maximise the loading capacity of the Ports.

c) The Goan iron ore has limited takers in the Indian Steel industry due to:

i. Availability of higher grade ores in Eastern Sector or Bellary.

ii. Utilisation of Low Grade Goan Iron Ore increases costs of making steel especially consumption of Imported coking coal

iii. Logistics Costs from Goa render the low grade Goan iron ore non-competitive in Karnataka and Odisha.

iv. Goa is not a suitable location for setting up steel plants – Due to regulatory restrictions and unavailability of land, Goa is unsuitable for setting up new Greenfield Steel projects.

v. The Goan low grade iron ore is haematitic in nature unsuitable for economic pelletisation due to high energy consumption.

Mining in Goa today is synonymous with iron ore mining which is completely by the Private Sector. It has a long cherished history of systematic & scientific mining and won various accolades from different government regulatory bodies like IBM, DGMS etc.

The exemplary Reclamation & Rehabilitation of mined-out area carried out at some of the mines in Goa has attracted the attention of the mining community not only in India but also overseas and its case studies are often benchmarked at International platforms.