India Faces Possible Manganese Supply Shortage

India’s Bureau of Mines (IBM) has warned that the country could face a severe manganese demand and supply gap by 2020 which could impact steel production in the country.

According to Mining Weekly:

In a report titled ‘Manganese Ore: Vision 2020 and Beyond’, the government’s multidisciplinary organisation said that during 2012/13, Indian manganeseproduction was estimated at 2.5-million tonnes of between 30% and 35%manganese content.

The entire production was accounted for by companies such as MOIL Limited,Tata, Orissa Mining Corporation and Sandur, and even if their existing and future production were taken into account, the country’s manganese production would be around five-million tonnes a year by 2020, against a total demand forecast of nine-million tonnes a year, the report said.

In a statement the IBM said:

A huge gap will persist in demand and supply position by 2020, which is a matter of grave concern and in the existing situation needs immediate attention to revamp the entire mining activity on a large scale by all companies.

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