KOLKATA (miningweekly.com) – India’s multidisciplinary mining industry body, Indian Bureau of Mines (IBM), has ordered dedicated sustainable development units (SDUs) at each mine or leasehold area to implement the government’s Sustainable Development Framework (SDF) though the newly instituted ‘star rating of mines’.

Setting down the goals of SDUs in a background paper on the implementation of the ‘star rating of mines’, IBM said that each SDU would be responsible for periodic reviews of mine operations, setting up conflict management mechanisms, training and sensitisation of miners and local stakeholders.

IBM had also advocated for one or more regional coordination committee to be established at every mineral zone or cluster. The committee should be headed by the designated principal secretary of provincial mines departments, along with domain experts.

These committees would be mandated to advise on infrastructure and logistics for local area economic development, conduct social-impact assessments, and define carrying capacity, the extent of mining at each project, production levels and pollution impacts, the background paper stated.

Last month, the Mines Ministry announced the implementation of a Web-enabled 'star rating of mines' system for evaluation of sustainable mining by each operator.

The system entailed a two-tiered self-evaluation template, which the Mines Ministry would provide to mine operators to complete. IBM would validate the document, based on which each mine would be accorded a star rating, with five stars being the highest rating.

IBM, which the Mines Ministry mandated to implement the SDF at every mine, had also laid down audit mechanisms, along with multilevel reporting of mine operations.

Towards this goal, along with implementing the star rating system, IBM had proposed setting up State SDF centres at the provincial level reporting to a national SDF centre under the Mines Ministry, the IBM paper stated.