Date | Feb 17, 2015: The Andhra Pradesh Cabinet has decided to call for global tenders to sell huge deposits of the Barytes ore from the huge monumental mines of Mangapeta in Kadapa district. This was disclosed by I & PR minister Palle Raghunath Reddy who was briefing cabinet decisions.
The government plans to mine a minimum of 3 million tones of barytis ore every year from the huge deposits of over 500 ml tonnes of which 50 lakh tonnes have been mined so far illegally. Henceforth, the APMDC (AP mineral development corporation) will be undertaking the mining operations and also grant the private mining leases through transparent e-bidding
We all know that the Vijayalaksmi Mining Co of the YS Rajasekhar Reddy and now his son YS Jagan Mohan Reddy have been in mining business at Mangampeta since several decades. During the first innings of TDP CM Chandrababu Naidu, the government had cancelled the Barytes mining lease of Vijayalakshmi Co after a report by Natarajan committee on all the illegal mining activities.
YSR had resumed barytes mining once again after his party came to power. He had sold away the AP carbides company which used barytes ore for preparing a chemical used in drilling operations.
(Source: http://www.thehansindia.com/)