Western Ghat Bauxite

Western Ghat Bauxite

Commodity– Bauxite
Country – India
Region – Asia
Ranking of bauxite permit applications in Western Ghats, Maharashtra
A reconnaissance study carried out in 25 bauxite licenses (PL and ML) in the Western Ghats region of Maharashtra for Thriveni Earth Movers Private Limited in order to explore the resource and exploitation potential. Based on the ranking by study carried out, Thriveni wanted to initiate follow up actions to pursue these PL and ML applications for early recommendation, grant and execution by the State and the Central Governments. In addition, TEMPL also desires identification of high tonnage, high grade bauxite potential areas in Maharashtra, which would also have easy exploitation potential.
Geovale executed the project in the following way:

Ranking of Bauxite Assets
A geologist team took a detailed geological traverse over the TEMPL bauxite permit application areas in Maharashtra, collected GPS controlled observation points and collected data about bauxite profile, bauxite thickness, overburden, depth to bottom lithomarge etc.
The team also collected GPS controlled rock samples for carrying out chemical assay for elements characterizing bauxite.
In addition to the resource information, the field team would also collect infrastructure, environmental and social datasets from the assets, which would supplement datasets for the Scoping Study being carried out separately.

Identification of Freehold, Non-notified, Bauxite Potential Areas
Geovale carried out a remote sensing study, carrying out specialized processing of Landsat imagery to identify bauxite spectral signatures in the region.
Ground Validation of bauxite signature in the satellite images, and corroborated through historical exploration, and assessment of the resource potential.
The highest resource potential area, which is freehold, and are un-notified, was selected for recommendation for PLA, strategically (considering the conclusions from the scoping study).