Mining at Sesa Goa's Codli mine. This shows a contractor removing waste. The trucks are the ubiquitous 10 toners. They are the workhorse of India and hundreds clog the roads. Sesa uses 35 t Volvo trucks for its iron ore handling.

Coldi, in south Goa, is the largest of our mines producing about 3 Mtpa of iron ore. There is a second mine in North Goa, Shinshi, producing 1.5 Mtpa.

Ore being loaded into a 35 t truck.

Volvo

There are a further 2 mines in Karnataka, near Chitradurga and Hospet, producing 1.2 Mtpa and 2 mines in Orissa, Thakurani and Jalahuri producing 1 Mtpa. This gives total Sesa Goa production of nearly 7 Mtpa. (A big change form my days in BHP Iron Ore where we were producing 6 Mt a MONTH - now 8 Mt a month.)

In Goa, after mining, crushing, screening and washing the final product is loading into barges - on the Mandovi River for Shonshi and the Zuari R for Codli.

Tree Planting

Sesa Goa plants about 600,000 trees a year. Visiting heavies are required to plant a tree. This was on my first visit to Sesa's Chitradurga mines in Karnataka State. To get there was a 11/2 hr flight to Bangalore, then a 4 hr drive to Chitradurga. We stayed in a hostel run by a local very famous swami. I had the privilege of sleeping in the bed that the Dali Lama had recently slept in. I was uplifted.

A.Narain Mine - Chitradurga

Sesa mines about 2 million tonnes per annum from this mine.

Train Loading

Not the best photo but shows manual train loading in Orissa. I wasn't allowed to get close in case the locals realised it was a Sesa Goa train they were loading and they may strike for more money.

The wagons are first loaded from the side, through doors at either end. One person - men and woman are involved, shovels ore in to a flattish basket which is raised onto the top of the head, carried across to the door then the ore tossed into the wagon. Once as much as can be loaded this way is done, the doors are closed, a ramp placed up to the top of the wagon and ore thrown in from this ramp. These wagons are being filled from the top.

There are 2 spur lines here and a 58 wagon rake is split in two. On the other spur, wagons were being loaded from the side - by 700 people!! It was unbelievable. They were all flat out, it looked like an ants nest.