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 kms and another for an area of 735 square kms in the three districts.