SRL’s operations consist of two major iron ore mining areas, one in Bicholim and the other in Surla, both located in North Goa.

The Bicholim mine consists of five contiguous mining leases covering an area of 479.3 hectares in the north of Goa. The Surla mine consists of three contiguous mining leases covering an area of 253.4 hectares in the recognised iron ore belt of Pale-Velguem-Bicholim-Shirgao in the north of Goa.

Bicholim iron ore mines are located in Bicholim Taluka of North Goa. The mining area comprises of five continuous leases covering an area of 498.70 ha. These leases are situated on a hill range running in SE-NW direction. The highest and lowest elevations of the area from reduced mean sea level (R.L.) are 156.98 and 15 m, respectively. The hill is gently sloping on the SE and SW sides.

General rock types of the area include magnetite-hematite-sericite schist, biotite-quartz schist and phyllite. All these rocks have undergone laterization to a varying extent. The area under study mostly consists of phyllite, which is pink to yellowish in colour, having good lineation and show intense laterization. These phyllites are associated with ferrugineous quartzites showing mineralization of iron and manganese. The humid tropical climate, characterized by high intensity of precipitation and temperature, resulting in wet and dry period is considered favourable for the formation of laterite and lateritic soil (Venkataraman, 1984). This lateritic zone acts as recharge zone for groundwater.

The soil in the core zone is derived from laterite and is sandy loamy in texture. Soil depth is generally not more than 20 cm. The soil cover is predominantly present on hillsides and slopes, while hilltops are mostly laterite outcrops. Soil in the buffer zone is generally lateritic having low permeability (Marathe and Shah, 1987).

Velguem-Pale deposit is among the best deposits of Goa after Bicholim-Sirigao deposit, which extends from the river Madei in the south to Sonus village in the north, over a distance of about 6 km in a general N 30° W direction.

The deposit occurs essentially on the crest and on the south-western limb of an asymmetrical anticlinal fold whose axis runs in a N 30° W direction for the major length and changes to N 60° W owing to a dip fault in the north-westerly tip. Generally, the dip of the beds on the south-western limb is gentler than that on the north-eastern limb; on the south-western limb, it varies from 17 to 60° and on the north-eastern limb, it varies from 50 to 85°. The width and the thickness of the deposit are seen to vary from place to place depending upon the amount of dip of the bed, the angle of slope of the ground and the amount of erosion that the bed has suffered.

The north-western portion of the deposit between Sonus and Velguem for a length of about 2.5 km is generally referred to as Velguem section of the deposit and the remaining portion to the south-east is referred to as Pale section.

The Velguem section of the deposit has formed on an asymmetrical anticlinal fold whose axis trends in a general N 60° W direction. The lumpy ore in this section of the deposit contains 57 to 61 percent Fe and the powdery ore 63 to 66 percent Fe.

The Pale section of the deposit extends from the NE-SW flowing nala, about 500 m east of Velguem in the north-west to the river Madei in the south-east for a distance of about 3.5 km. In this section, Fe content in the lumpy ore varies from 57 to 61 percent and in the powdery ore from 64 to 66.5 percent.

Cudnem-Dignem-Surla deposit: The deposit extends from a point 2.25 km south-west of Onda and west of the Onda Usgno road in the north-west of Surla hill, located about 1 km east of Dergunvado in the south-east. The deposit has a length of about 3.5 km and a width ranging from 100 m in the south-eastern portion to about 60 m in central portion and about 220 m in the north-western portion. At one place in south-east, the deposit pinches out completely for a short distance. The grade of the ore is seen to distinctly deteriorate towards south-east.

The lumpy ore in Surla area is hard compact and platy to massive in nature; practically, the entire lumpy ore zone has already mined out, the remaining is powdery ore which contains Fe 64 to 66 percent.

SRL’s operations consist of two major iron ore mining areas, one in Bicholim and the other in Surla, both located in North Goa.

Backhoe excavators of 1.1m3 bucket capacity are used for excavation of ROM material. Development in waste is also without drilling & blasting with the use of dozers. There are six dozers of 520, 570, 855hp, 10 backhoe of 428hp, 13 wheel loaders of 330 hp, 30 dumpers of 400hp and 6 dumpers of 350hp. All these machineries are common for Bicholim mine.

Maximum bench height is upto 6-7m. There are 10 benches in waste/OB and 7 benches in ore of which few are common due to trend of mineralisation. Working Pit top RL is 138m and bottom RL is 72m.

SRL’s mining assets include processing plants, barges, jetties, transhippers and loading capacities at the Mormugao port.

Electric operated mechanical screen plants are in use for grade wise production of iron ore in lumps and fines in adjoining Lamgao lease. Mechanical processing i.e. dry screening was proposed for grade-wise production.

Processed ore from the Bicholim and Surla mines is transported by SRL to loading jetties at Sarmanas and Surla/Sinori in north of Goa, and then loaded into barges and sent to Mormugao port in Goa, India, where it is then shipped to customers.