India's mineral production up 3% in December

New Delhi: India's mineral production rose 2.6 per cent in December 2021 over the same month a year ago, the mines ministry said on Wednesday.

The index of mineral production of mining and quarrying sector at 120.3 was 2.6 per cent higher in the month under review as compared to the level in the same period of 2020, the ministry said in a statement.

As per the provisional statistics of Indian Bureau of Mines (IBM), there was a cumulative growth of 16 per cent during April-December period of 2021-22 over the year-ago period, it said. The production level of important minerals in December 2021 includes coal 748 lakh tonne, lignite 39 lakh tonne, natural gas (utilized) 2,814 million cu m and petroleum (crude) 25 lakh tonne.

The production of important minerals that showed year-on-year growth during December 2021 includes magnesite (73.2 per cent), gold (71.0 per cent), bauxite (27.1 per cent) and lignite (21.4 per cent). "The production of other important minerals showing negative growth is: petroleum (Crude) (-1.8 per cent), zinc conc (-4.3 per cent), iron ore (-6.2 per cent)...and diamond (-97.6 per cent)," it said.