Brief notes on the production of Marble in India

Production of marble is reported mainly from Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh and Gujarat and in small quantities in Andhra Pradesh, Bihar, Haryana and Madhya Pradesh. Production from Rajasthan accounts for over 88 per cent of the total country’s production.

As per current trends, there is unlikely to be any mismatch between supply and demand of marble in the Ninth Five Year Plan. India has total recoverable reserves of marble to the tune of 100.9 MT (as on 1.4.90). It possesses vast deposits of very good quality and texture and variety of colours.

The use of marble has created a problem of environmental pollution. The marble processing units, cutting and polishing units are facing problems of the accumulation of marble powder, and useless residue.

This Porus white powder is what people breathe in and live within the vicinity of marble mines. Another acute problem is that of water logging.

Their disposal has also become a great problem to the mine owner, creating an environmental pollution. An experimental programme to find its utility in manufacturing of building blocks and tiles has been undertaken. Building blocks by mixing marble dust and black cotton soil and marble dust and red soils disintegrate immediately after cooling.

The crushing strength of cement marble dust block was also found to be too low. The results of mosaic floor tiles tested for breaking load for dry and wet test and absorption indicate that a proportion of 1:1.5:1.5 of cement in marble dust and mosaic chips produce good tiles.

In view of the above, it can be concluded that marble dust is of little use either for manufacture of building blocks with clay or for cement marble dust block. More studies are necessary. The marble dust, however, can certainly be used for manufacture of mosaic tiles.

Suggestions

1. The environmental damage caused by small mines is no less than others when considered in totality.

There is a need for a careful and detailed study at least in major mining centres, both of major and minor minerals, for evolving suitable measures for prudent environment management.

2. Generation of reliable environmental baseline data for small mines has been a major constraint in the preparation of the Environment Management Program (EMP) due to their limited resources. Such data could, therefore, be generated for a cluster of mines and regional/territorial EMP prepared for monitoring the effectiveness of control measures in those small mines.

It is understood that the Ministry of Environment and Forest has taken steps in this regard and approved projects for preparation of such EIA and EMP in Gurgaon (Haryana) and Alwar (Rajasthan).

3. The unwary tradition-bound workers, supervisors and negligent employers need to be made aware of the damages likely to be caused to health and life in general due to pollution of air, water, noise etc. and how to mitigate them.

The mines safety weeks organised by the DGMS, and mines environment and mineral conservation weeks organised by IBM held annually are steps to bring out awareness to the problems. It is suggested that more such studies should be carried out in various parts of the country.

4. The annual environmental awards instituted by the Federation of Indian Mining Industry (FIM1) for the best performing mines has helped promotion of control measures in all mines.

It is suggested more such workshops on environment-friendly mining should be organised in various parts of the country jointly by IBM, FIMI, NISM and other NGOs with support from the concerned authorities in the Central and State Government.

5. The use of surface miners wherever possible need to be encouraged as drilling and blasting operations are eliminated, resulting in cost reduction in operation as well as in avoiding noise and dust pollution. In this machine, the ripping, crushing and loading operations are combined.

6. Use of advanced computer-aided software’s for mine planning not only enable reliable estimation of mineral reserves, grade and effective blending and pit design but also facilitate environment friendly and cost effective mining through optimization of production schedule.

7. Keeping in view the local conditions and other tradeoffs between cost and benefits, frequent dialogues between industry and pollution control authorities is necessary to voluntarily evolve an action plan and set targets for phased implementation.

8. Combination of in-pit crushing and conveying systems have become more acceptable in quarrying worldwide, since overall costs in comparison with truck haulage is less.

Mobile crushing has high productivity; maximum utilization and high flexibility when used in conjunction with flexible belt conveyor systems and this would find more application in the industry.