V. V. Minerals Expands Operations To Odisha

V. V. Minerals is planning for excavation and refining of the mineral in Odisha. The investment of this project is estimated to be around Rs 100 crores.

V. V. Minerals is a Tamil Nadu-based mining firm having largest market share in ilmenite production and exports, and one of the largest Indian companies in the sand mining business.

“We are planning to apply for 2-3 areas in Odisha for excavating ilmenite and garnet. We will also invest Rs 75 crore to 100 crore for establishing a mineral refining plant in the state,” said V Subramaniun, director of the firm. VVM is the first private exporter of ilmenite and is the leading manufacturer and exporter of the mineral.

 “Production of ilmenite has been slow in India due to tough regulations and limited awareness about it. The government must change its position on the mineral,” added Subramaniun.

“Along with the tough regulations, the processing of lease grant should be made faster if we want to tap its potential because apart from exports, the mineral will be in huge demand from domestic market in future,” said the V. V. Mineral official.

Ilmenite is upgraded to titanium dioxide to be used in consumer goods like paper, plastic, paint colour and cosmetic industries such as sunscreen. The proposal of V. V. Minerals is strategically important as Kolkata-based Saraf Agencies Private Ltd (SAPL) is constructing a titanium slag plant near Gopalpur with an investment of Rs 250 crore. These plants use ilmenite as feedstock.      

VV Minerals Chairman Vaikundarajan Under Scanner For Illegal Sand Mining May Not Be At Fault

Finally there seem to be some developments in the illegal sand mining case of Tamil Nadu because of which the government had placed a ban on heavy mineral mining. There was a news article recently published on The Hindu Business line on May 30, 2014, which mentioned that the Madras High Court has ordered the investigations to be concluded in one month’s time.

Previously, there were a couple of more news reports in Deccan Chronicle that suggested that VV Minerals was given the green card by the Central Government. Also, on the Business Standard news portal, there was a news story which stated that there is no evidence stating that there was any illegal activity conducted by the company owned by Mr. S. Vaikundarajan.

The man who was under the scanned for illegal sand mining of minerals worth 96k crore, may in fact not be at fault. Because according to Jaideep Prabhu, a journalist for DNA news portal in his news article on April 28, 2014, the four allegations put on the private companies who conduct heavy mineral mining like VV Minerals, India had perfectly logical explanations. The first was that the company did not allow some people in their premises, wherein it is actually illegal for them to allow people who are not authorized by government officials. The second was about the missing amounts of thorium in the report presented in the Lok Sabha. According to the allegation, they suspected the private companies of hoarding or illegally exporting thorium. However, the government does not even give private companies permission for thorium mining.

Similarly the Third and Fourth have reasonable explanations.