CONTENT

1. HISTORY & EVOLUTION

2. ABOUT THE SMIORE MINES

3. GEOLOGY OF THE MINES

4. STANDARD OF WORKING

5. MACHINERIES USED IN THE MINES

6. ENVIRONMENTAL MEASURES

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 1. HISTORY & EVOLUTION

Manganese mining became synonymous to Sandur Hills as early as in 1838. The ore was
mined by a foreign company from 1907 till 1953. In fact, the old workings and pits, though
long abandoned, are still visible in parts of our leasehold area. Even though Sandur had
always been an important metallurgical location - with manganese harnessing seen as early
as the 18th century - the industry got a fresh lease of life when General Sandur Mining
Company, Belgium acquired mining rights from M/s Joban (Jamboon) and Co. Ltd. at the
break of the 20th century. Y.R. Ghorpade, the former Maharaja of Sandur, after he merged
the Sandur State with Union of India, was awarded a mining lease over an area of 7500 ha.
It was he, who founded the Sandur Manganese & Iron Ores Limited (SMIORE) and the
lease was transferred to the company. Out of this, 2800 ha of area, which was largely iron
ore bearing, was deleted when our lease was renewed in 1974 and retained by the
Government. During the second renewal, the company voluntarily surrendered another
1500 ha of forest area for land preservation. Finally the lease was renewed over an area of
3200 ha with effect from 1st January 1994.

With a view to ensure better protection and development of the forested land, Founder Y.R.
Ghorpade, magnanimously gifted about 1600 ha of his personal property in 1980. Out of
the 3200 ha, we work on 2005 ha, keeping the balance 1200 ha reserved for future use.

Reserves in our lease area are estimated at about 40 million tonnes (Mt) of low grade iron
ore, about 8 Mt of low grade manganese ore and nearly 100 Mt of BHQ, keeping the scope
of expansion alive.

With a strong foundation, we are one of India’s most integral diversified and integrated
commodity producers. The cornerstone of our business still lies in systematic, safe and

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scientific mining. Our businesses have since expanded to cover mining, downstream
facilities of ferroalloy & power, solar power and hospitality.

The future operations, SMIORE NEXT, will be focusing on expanding and upgrading the
operations for manganese and iron ore, along with establishing further downstream
facilities to produce steel in phases. This expansion will enable us to add value to both
manganese and iron ores produced at its mines.

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1. ABOUT THE SMIORE MINES

1. NAME OF THE MINE: DEOGERI MANGANESE AND IRON ORE LIMITED

2. NAME OF THE OWNER: THE SANDUR MANGANESE AND IRON ORE

LIMITED

3. LOCATED IN: DEOGERI (PO) SANDUR TQ, BALLARI (DIST)

KARNATAKA 583112

4. MINING LEASE NUMBER: ML NO 2678(OLD 2580)

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5. TOTAL AREA: 1612.72HA (FOREST AREA) + 247.38 (REVENUE AREA)

6. MINE WORKING: OPEN CAST MINING

7. TOTAL RESERVE: 1.22 MILLION TONES

8. GRADE OF THE ORE: Mn 26 TO 46%, Fe 45 TO 62%

9. AVERAGE DAILY PRODUCTION: 400 TONS

10. AVERAGE DAILY REMOVAL OF OVERBURDEN: 1500M3

11. POWDER FACTOR: 6 TO 8 TONS\KG

12. STRIPPING RATIO: 1:4.47 TONNES

13. DIP OF THE ORE BODY AND DIRECTION: DIP 400, DIRECTION – NW

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 2. GEOLOGY OF THE MINES
The Sandur manganese ore deposits were formed during DHARWARIAN AGE
mineralization had taken place in SCHISTOSE group in various Schist bands called as
SANDUR SCHIEST BELT width is 5 to 50m and thickness is 5 to 75m and strike length is
about 25 to 550m.

3. STANDARD OF WORKING
In the earliest decades work was done manually and internal transport of the extracted ore is
done by hoist with locomotives of 1tonne capacity tub, inclined from pit bottom to top and
from hill top to railway siding through aerial rope. The mineral beneficiation is done by
jigging, crushing and washing. Earlier the washed tailing has been exported to Pakistan.
In present, method of working is semi mechanized and working is done by following
procedure
1. Drilling and blasting
2. Manual breaking and sorting of extracted ore
3. Transporting ore to the stock yard

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 3.1 DRILLING AND BLASTING
Deep-hole blasting or primary blasting and secondary blasting is done.
The manganese ore is heterogeneous deposit, to find the ore deposit primary blasting is
done.
In deep hole blasting 100mm diameter holes are drilled using wagon compressed drilling
machine. Before drilling hole marking is done by keeping the overburden 3m from the free
face and 3.5 as spacing and depth of hole will be 8 to 8.5m because height of the bench is
8m.
ANFO, slurry explosive and LOX explosive, safety fuse and ordinary detonators are used
for blasting. A series connection is given for blasting holes. After blasting the blasted
material is loaded using excavators and transported by tippers to dump yard.
Now secondary blasting of ore which is found by primary blasting is done by drilling hole
of 33mm diameter using jackhammer.
ANFO, slurry explosive and using safety fuse, ordinary detonators are used for blasting. A
series connection is given for blasting the holes.

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 4.2 MANUAL BREAKING AND SORTING OF EXTRACTED ORE
After excavation of ore by secondary blasting the boulders are formed which are braked
manually using jack hammer and gun. Same time sorting of ore is done manually,
according to their grade and size.

4.3 TRANSPORTING ORE TO THE STOCK YARD

After breaking and sorting of the ore, the material is transported from face to the stock
yard. The material is loaded using wheel loader which has bucket capacity of 1.7m3 and
transported by tippers which has bucket capacity of 16tonnes.
In stock yard ore is sorted, sized, stacked and sampled according to their different grades.
After obtaining sample results the ore is transported to different designated locations.

4. MACHINERIES USED IN THE MINES

For the achievement of production machinery plays important role the following are the
machineries deployed for working.

1. EXCAVATOR
The excavators are deployed for development and production. Bucket capacity of the
exacavator may range from 0.9m3 to 1.6m3. There are totally 10 excavators are working in

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mines and 3 are in spare. The excavators are make of TATA HITACHI of model EX200
(131HP), EX210 (140HP).

1. WHEEL LOADER
The wheel loaders are deployed for production purpose. There are total 9 wheel loaders in
which 7 are deployed in mines and 2 are in spare. Wheel loaders make of TATA of model
TWL 3036(8) having bucket capacity of 1.8m3( 124HP) and HM 2021 (1)having bucket
capacity of 1.7m3 (124HP).

2. DEEPHOLE DRILLING MACHINE ( in CFM)

Totally 4 drilling machines are deployed in mines. Which are make of ATLAS CAPCO 210
has capacity of 445CFM and have 169 hp unit.

3. DUMPERS
The tippers are deployed for development as well as for transporting the material from face
to stock yard. Totally 44 tippers are deployed in mines 14 are for development and 30 are
for transporting material. Tippers are make of TATA tippers having capacity of 10 to
16tonnes and 140 to 210 HP.
4. COMPRESSOR
The compressor are make of FORD 3610 (Jack hammer tractor) have capacity of 141CFM
and 50 HP unit. Totally 6 are working in mines for drilling 33mm holes for secondary

blasting .
6. ENVIRONMENTAL MEASURES
1. Spraying of water in mines and haul roads.
2. Check dams.
3. Coir mate on OB dump.
4. Silt settling tank.
5. Rain water harvesting pit.
6. Mine drainages.

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7. Dump plantation.

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ABOUT KTIO MINES NAME OF THE MINE

1. NAME OF THE MINE: KTIO MINES

2. MINE LEASE NO: 2678

3. MINE LEASE AREA: 319.630Ha

4. TYPE OF MINERAL: HEMATITE

5. METHOD OF WORKING: OPENCAST RESERVES
6. ORE: 96,35,851 MT
7. BHQ: 34,01,067 MT
8. WASTE: 60,84,912MT
9. AVERAGE GRADE: 58 TO 60%
10. DIP: 500 TO 550NE
11. STRIKE LENGTH: 4.5KM
12. ANNUAL PRODUCTION: 0.90MT
13. STRIPPING RATIO: 1:1.06
14. NUMBER OF BENCHES: 23
15. TOP RL: 1019M
16. BOTTOM RL: 850M
17. AVERAGE BENCH HEIGHT: MAX 7.5m, MIN 5m
18. AVERAGE BENCH WIDTH: 9m TO 7.5m
19. PROPOSED ACTIVE DUMP AREA: 49.73Ha
20. CAPACITY OF DUMP: 13.34million m3

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GEOLOGY OF THE MINES
The origin of the iron ore in the area is due to secondary enrichment of BHQ and
ferruginous SHALE. The rock types in the area belong to the iron ore series of
DHARVARIAN age. The iron ore is hard to powdery in nature with number of intercalated
phylitte / BHQ bands.
The general strike of the formations as well as ore body is N50W to S50E, the dip varies
from 50 to 55 due NE. Iron ore occurs in both in lumps and fines. The grade range of iron
ore is 45 to 62% Fe.

Sequence of rock or stratigraphic sequence is given below

1. TOP SOIL
2. BHQ
3. SHALE
4. RON ORE
5. SHALE
6. META VOLCANICS

STANADRD OF WORKING IN MINES

The mine is basically fully mechanized mine.so the working follows as below
1. Drilling and blasting
2. Loading and unloading of the ore reserves.
3. Screening and crushing

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DRILLING AND BLASTING OPERATION
Only deep-hole blasting is carried out in KTIO mines. In deep hole blasting 100mm
diameter holes are drilled using wagon compressed drilling machine. Before drilling hole
marking is done by keeping the overburden 3m from the free face and 3.5 as spacing and
depth of hole will be 8 to 8.5m because height of the bench is 8m.
ANFO, slurry explosive and LOX explosive, safety fuse and ordinary detonators are used
for blasting. A series connection is given for blasting holes. After blasting the blasted
material is loaded using excavators and transported by tippers to crushing and screening
plant. If the extracted material is BHQ, SHALE then it is transported to dumping yard.

1. LOADING AND UNLOADING OF ORE RESERVES

Loading of the blasted material is done by excavators which have bucket capacity of 1.4m3
and transported by tippers which have bucket capacity of 16tones. The ore reserve is having
three types. After blasting the reserve will be in the form of either IRON, BHQ or SHALE.
Depending on this unloading process will be done. If it is BHQ then it is unloaded in BHQ
dump, If it is shale then it is unloaded at dumping yard which is further used for plantation
of trees and if it is IRON ore then it is transported to screening and crushing plant.

2. SCREENING AND CRUSHING

The ore reserve is unloaded in stock yard which is in the form of lumps and fines as well as
boulders. If it is boulders using the rock breaker boulders are braked.
Crushing and screening is followed by ROM (Run of Mines). Which is shown in below
diagram.

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ENVIRONMENTAL MEASURES
1. Spraying of water on haul roads is been done to prevent the dust.
2. Ob dump are consolidated by covering the entire dump by coir mate on which Emite
grass and different types of plants are planted.
3. Systematic drainages are provided in the mines as well as in the dump plot to
prevent water entering to the mine working and to prevent the dump sliding.
4. For the natural flow of water huge pipe of 1 to 2m diameter are placed in the valley.
5. Toe walls, earthen dams, masonry dams, garland drain, silt steeling tank and rain
water harvesting pit
Are constructed for reclamation and rehabitation.

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