Prospecting licence for diamond mining to RIL subsidiary

BHOPAL: The Madhya Pradesh government has accorded a
prospecting licence for diamond mining to an exploration
and production subsidiary of
Reliance Industries Limited.

Following the licence the subsidiary will be able to prospect
over an area of 1800 square kms spread over the Rewa, Sidhi
and Satna districts in Madhya Pradesh, an official release
said here today.

Reliance plans to pump in about Rs 1000 crore in the
prospecting work and it is the second private sector
company to venture into diamond prospecting in Madhya
Pradesh after Australian mining major, Rio Tinto.

Yesterday, the Madhya Pradesh Mining Director,
R K Sharma handed over the prospecting licence
for diamond to RIL CGM, G K Mohapatra in Bhopal.

Besides diamond, the prospecting licence includes
permission for other minerals like
gold, copper, lead, zinc and silver.

The licences have been issued in two parts, one for
an area of 1084 square km and another for
an area of 735 square km in the three districts.