About DMF

The District Mineral Foundation Trust of Jharsuguda is established by the notification of State Government as a trust or non-profit body in the mining operation affected districts. Since the trust has been formed for the district 175 villas including the ULB areas are coming under Directly affected village. The ODMF rule says to include the areas which are under the circumference of 10Km radius of existing mines. The red circle in the map is showing a basic idea about the existence of Directly mining affected areas. Besides, following the ODMF rule 193 villages of the district has been identified as indirectly affected areas on account of economic, social and environment consequences (Transportation and Pollution).

About Mining and Mineral Operation

As stated, earlier Jharsuguda is the district which is bestowed with rich Mineral like Coal, Fire Clay, Quartz/Quartzite as major mineral product and sand, gravel of the district. As per the data received from the Mining Department around 16 mines are under operation in Jharsuguda district whose detail information is given in the following table.

Coal, the major mineral resources of the district is confined to lb-river coal field which was brought to light towards the later part of the last century and now it is supposed to be one of the major coal fields in India, Both Barakar and Karharbarl formations of this coal field are major coal bearing horizons. Surface and sub-surface data reveal one coal seam in Karharbari and four coal seams in Barakar with a number of local seams. The coal seams are highly interbedded with high moisture and ash contents. A total reserve of 9361.26 million tonnes of power grade coal has been estimated for the district.

In Jharsuguda district Coal extraction is done by Mahanadi Coalfields Limited (MCL) a subsidiary of Coal India Limited. There are five numbers of Opencast Projects and nine numbers of underground leases in operation by MCL. The total area held by MCL for Mining Operation is 8895.94 Hectare in the district. Major Consumers of the 18 Valley Area Coal across the Country are like NALCO, NTPC, Tamil Nadu Electricity Board (TNEB), West Bengal Power Development Corporation (WPDCL), Aravall Power Co.(P) Ltd., T.P.P. Hariyana, Talwandi Sahoo Power Ltd., Punjab, Tata Electric Power, Jharkhand, Vendanta Pvt. Ltd., OPGC Odisha, Mahagenco Akola, Maharashtra, Gopani Iron & Power, Chandrapura, Maharashtra. etc.

Fire Clay: Several occurrences of fire clay have been encountered within the Kamthi and Barakar formations of lb-river coal field associated with coal seams. The important occurrences are located around Belpahar, Jurabaga, Darliapali. Lakhanpur and Bholamal. The fire clay is very hard, fine grained with good plasticity dirty white in colour and when burnt it neither cracks nor fuses at 1400°C. The fusion point varies from 1600° to 1640°C. A total reserve of 0.674 million tonnes of fire clay has been estimated for the district. Tata Refractories Ltd. (TRL) is a major refractory plant in the state which thrives on the produce of the Belpahar fireclay mine. Other occurrences are reported in the village Chandli, Soldia, Ganga, Belout, Bhatlaida, Bonaroi, Khinda & Talabira.

Quartz & Quartzite: The quartz deposit of Bhallara. Bonereal Kanjhaharan are & quartzite of amongst the notable ones. Besides, refractory / glass grade quartz occurs around Lalkera, Pandrimal, Jhargaon Kadamghat, Kolabira. Jangapera, Bhikhampur, Beldungri & Harpidungri. Besides above-mentioned coal mines, there are two numbers of Quartzite mines operating in the district. One is Chuinpali Quartzite mines of M/s TRL Krosaki Refractories Limited over 102.123 Hectare area situated at Chuinpali Village of Lakhanpur Tahasil and the other is Bhikampali Quartzite Mines of M/s OCL India Ltd. over 4,897 Hectare in Bhikamplai Village of Lakhanpur Tahasil of Jharsuguda District. The following table shows the current data of ongoing mines and their production.

Current Status of Mines and Lessees