ONGC and the State-owned Andhra Pradesh Mineral Development Corporation Limited have entered into a memorandum of understanding to set up a unit for improving the quality of barytes mined from the Mangampeta mines of Kadapa district.

The MoU was inked during the recent industry mission held at Visakhapatnam in the presence of Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu. The barytes from Mangampeta hitherto mined has 30 to 40 per cent lower grade. In order to use barytes thus mined and export to other markets, the proposed joint venture unit with ONGC would increase the grade taking up its purification process.

According to APMDC statement here, about 50 lakh tonne barytes already mined is lying unused due to lower grade quality. The proposed unit seeks to ensure safety of the mined mineral and also purify it for sale globally. This could result in about 5-7 lakh tonne of purified mineral. While ONGC would make use of some of the mined material thus purified, rest of the material would be exported by APMDC.

During April 2015, 311,414 metric tonnes of barytes was mined, which the corporation said was the highest mined in the past four years. It is proposed to further step up mining and garner additional revenues by finding the right buyer, according to APMDC.

RINL ties up for magnetite mining In another memorandum, APMDC has signed up with Rashtriya Ispat Nigam Limited for a joint venture project with 51:49 per cent stake for exploration and mining of magnetite.

The agreement was inked by Girija Shankar, Vice-Chairman and Managing Director of APMDC and D Nageshwara Rao, Director Operations, RINL. After securing necessary mandatory clearances from the Centre under the Mines and Mineral Development and Regulation Amendment 2015, APMDC would then work towards extraction of the mineral to be fully utilised by RINL.

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