Goa Iron Ore: More Potential Than What is Known and Described

We would be sceptical on the report that Goan iron reserves would exhaust in 10 years, apparently suggested in Prof Ashoka Dessai’s book on the Geology and Mineral Resources of Goa. The way India Today reports, the conclusions are utterly confusing. i would however, await to the see the book to give our final opinion. Would be keen to see if the said research has categorized Goan iron ore resource and reserves separately. Our investigation for years in Goa confirms that these are mostly lower grade than other iron belts because of leaching,  averaging 50 – 55% Fe of hematite. But only about 40% of the belt is under lease and post SC intervention less than 25% of the existing leases are producing. IBM’s Goa inventory has been at 1 Billion Tonnes for most of the last 3 decades, though this number has already been exploited. Agree, no exploration has been carried out by the state or federal agencies. Our estimate suggests that + 2 Bt of exploration target potential resources (not reserves) are in the existing leases and the unexplored part should have atleast additional 2-3 Bt of exploration target potential, if not more. Of course, Goan mineral sector needs modern exploration to convert these exploration targets to resources and then to reserves https://lnkd.in/fH_2f-m

Source: https://www.indiatoday.in/pti-feed/story/ga-mining-expert-corrected-1154665-2018-01-26