Cement, Energy and Environment

18 potential for further creation of additional cement manufacturing capacity. The qualitative and quantitative assessment of limestone deposits have been carried out by various Central Govt, State Directorate of Geology and Mining and private companies. Based on the exploration data generated by these agencies at present the total cement limestone resource estimated by Indian Bureau of Mines (IBM) is 124,539.551 million tonnes. The zone wise and state wise cement grade limestone reserves and resources as per IBM are as under : Table-1 Zone Wise, State Wise Limestone Reserves and Resources in India East Zone State Reserves in Million Tonnes Remaining Resource in Million Tonnes Total Resource in Million Tonnes Arunachal Pradesh - 151.5 151.500 Assam 213.04 756.783 969.807 Bihar 11.47 438.282 449.754 Jharkhand 116.055 199.986 316.041 Manipur - 38.423 38.423 Meghalaya 146.637 13797.798 13944.435 Nagaland 0.825 20.0 20.825 Odisha 534.993 426.627 961.62 West Bengal - 4.417 4.417 Total 1023.006 15833.816 16856.822 West Zone State Reserves in Million Tonnes Remaining Resource in Million Tonnes Total Resource in Million Tonnes Chattisgarh 852.056 7051.152 7903.208 Gujarat 670.897 8287.222 8958.119 Madhya Pradesh 391.644 3934.656 4326.3 Maharashtra 199.608 1161.636 1361.244 Daman Diu - 48.84 48.84 Total 2114.205 20483.506 22597.711 North Zone State Reserves in Million Tonnes Remaining Resource in Million Tonnes Total Resource in Million Tonnes Haryana 9.675 48.538 58.213 Himachal Pradesh 162.927 3454.293 3617.22 Jammu & Kashmir 90.743 511.189 601.932 Rajasthan 1533.257 17004.643 18537.9 Uttaranchal 1.136 1011.581 1012.717 Uttar Pradesh 123.346 380.146 503.492 Total 1921.084 22410.39 24331.474 South Zone State Reserves in Million Tonnes Remaining Resource in Million Tonnes Total Resource in Million Tonnes Andhra Pradesh & Telangana 2564.219 31717.544 34281.763 Karnataka 717.732 24896.708 25614.44 Kerala 143.392 2.231 145.623 Pondicherry - 15.732 15.732 Tamil Nadu 465.288 230.698 695.986 Total 3890.631 56862.913 60753.544 As per the quality of limestone, except limestone occurring in the North - East state, Gujarat, few patches of Andhra Pradesh(including Telengana), Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh most of the deposits are low grade, either having high silica content ( SiO 2 16-20 %) or high magnesia containing 6-12 % MgO or even more. This limestone cannot be used for manufacture of cement as such with the require beneficiation. Specially the production of sound cement from high MgO limestone is the biggest challenge. Further, out of total limestone resources 124539.91 million tones, 30% falls under the forest cover, restricted area and eco-sensitive zone, not permissible for exploitation. As a result further 34677.19 million tonnes of limestone are not available for the cement industries, although some of the deposits are best cement grade limestone. From the available remaining 89862.361 limestone resources cement grade limestone reserves is only 8948.926 million tonnes (UNFC Code (111), (121) and (122)) as per UNFC classification of mineral deposits. Although the consumption ratio of limestone to cement has gone down in India due to production of more blended cement, the limestone quantity requirement for cement manufacture has increased 1.5 times in last 15 years. Further the demand for high grade limestone has been increased due to