Rio Tinto Chief Presses Indian PM for Bunder Project Approvals

The Bunder Project

(IDEX Online News) – Rio Tinto chief executive Sam Walsh has reportedly been in contact with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi three times in the past six months regarding approvals to continue development of the planned $500 million Bunder diamond mine in India’s Madya Pradesh.

The Bunder deposit, discovered in 2004 and located about 500 kilometers southeast of New Delhi, signifies the country’s first diamond discovery in 40 years.

"We're waiting for approvals, forestry and environment approvals, which I am hopeful will come through in the near term," Walsh said, as quoted by South China Morning Post, referring to the Bunder project.

While India currently has one small mine in production, Bunder's annual production rate would be about 20 times higher, according to Rio Tinto.

Walsh told the news source that among his conversations with the Indian prime minster about the Bunder project as well as the Odisha iron ore project, one occurred in Melbourne in November and another in New Delhi in September last year.

Rio Tinto, which already employs about 300,000 workers in India to cut and polish diamonds from its wholly owned Argyle mine in Australia, is seeking approvals to bring Bunder into production as early as 2019.