New Delhi, Sep 21 (IANS): The index of mineral production for the mining and quarrying sector for July 2022 stood at 101.1, which was 3.3 per cent lower compared to that recorded in the corresponding period of last year.

According to the provisional statistics of Indian Bureau of Mines (IBM), the cumulative growth for the April-July of the current fiscal was up by 6.1 per cent compared to the corresponding period of last year.

Production of coal stood at 603 lakh tonnes in July 2022, while that of lignite was 33 lakh tonnes. Natural gas production stood at 2,811 million cubic meters, petroleum (crude) output was 25 lakh tonnes, while bauxite's output stood at 1,526,000 tonnes, according to official data.

Important minerals which showed positive growth during July 2022 over July 2021 were phosphorite (39.3 per cent), coal (11.2 per cent), copper concentrate (8.8 per cent) and zinc concentrate (5.9 per cent).

At the same time, negative growth was seen in minerals like iron ore (-21.5 per cent), manganese ore (-17.9 per cent), lignite (-16.6 per cent), gold (-10.6 per cent), magnesite (-10.5 per cent), chromite (-9 per cent), and limestone (-8.8 per cent).