NMDC assured its commitment towards environment protection

Hyderabad: As eco-friendly miner, NMDC made significant progress on all the sustainable development goals set by United Nations. Sustainability is ingrained in the organizational vision, mission, policies, management systems, processes and performance.

NMDC believes that Greenhouse gas emissions are a “cost to environment” and wishes to embark on low carbon growth trajectory in its operations.

As a responsible corporation, NMDC Ltd believes in maintaining ecological balance and is committed to ensure that its environmental systems and practices are aligned with international best practices such as the ISO: 14001-Environmental Management System standard.

All major production projects of NMDC i.e Bailadila Deposit-5, 10/11A, Bailadila Deposit-14/11C, Donimalai Iron Ore Project and Diamond Mining Project, Majhgawan, Panna have accreditation with Integrated Management System including SA-8000.

This standard enables NMDC to manage its environmental impacts while adhering to the requirements not only of the standard itself but also to those of national and international norms, legislation, and regulations.

It also builds the foundation for continuous improvement in environmental performance. NMDC was also awarded Greentech Environment Award (Winner) and 4 first prizes and 2 second prizes in various categories including 1st prize in Overall Performance category in Mines Environment and Mineral Conservation Week during this year.

On this occasion of World Environment Day 2020, N. Baijendra Kumar, CMD, NMDC said, “As a responsible and eco-friendly miner we are passionate about development supported by sustainability. We are always looking to align with nature conservation efforts and are committed to making our facilities environmentally friendly and safer for all our stakeholders. We are happy to be recognised for our zeal toward environment protection this inspires us to do more in this important field.”

Many initiatives towards Environmental management were taken by projects of NMDC like: Every year Carbon Footprint studies are being conducted for disclosure of Greenhouse Gas Emissions in Carbon Disclosure Project (CDP). Water audit is conducted at all the production projects for evaluation of water consumption. The recommendations are being implemented and regular maintenance of water appurtenances is being done.

NMDC has also tied up with premier institutes of repute for their guidance and knowledge about Environment protection. Indian Council for Forestry Research and Environment (ICFRE) engaged for carrying out R&R and Environment Management studies at Kirandul and Donimalai.

The measures suggested are being implemented at the Projects. Indian School of Mines (ISM) Dhanbad is engaged for conducting studies regarding water, wastewater, solid waste management. NMDC engaged Visveswaraya National Institute of Technology (VNIT), Nagpur for conducting a study on ‘Metal Ion Contamination in mine run off’ in Bailadila Iron Ore.

Ratna Chotrani