CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION Each and every organization has its own importance in the economic wealth of the nation.

Different organization meets different needs of people by offering different product s and services. Due to g lo ba li za ti on , th e wo rl d has changed into a global village. In this fast changing business scenario, it is imperative for every entrepreneur to have a vivid understanding of the functional application of the new age business. As a part of the academic curriculum each student has to undertake an organizational study to get a practical exposure. This study is conducted at INDIAN RARE EARTHS LIMITED , CHAVARA The plant operates on a mining area containing as high as 40% heavy minerals and extending over a length of 22kms in the belt of Neendakara and Kayamkulam. The deposit is quite rich with respect to Ilm enit e, Ruti le a nd Zir co n. Th e pre se nt a nnual product ion capaci ty of Chavar a uni t e ng ag ed in dr y as we ll as wet (dr edgi ng/ up gradation) mining and mineral separation stands at 2,00,000 tone of Ilmenite, 1,14,500tones of Rutile, 11,750 tones of Zircon and 10,000 tones of Sillimanite. In addition to that, the plant has facilities for annual production of ground Zircon called Zirflour and Micozir of the order of 6000 tones and 300 tons respectively. IREL Chavar a is o ne of the o ld est an d l ea di ng publ ic sect or undert akings under the Department of Atomic Energy (DAE). It is an ISO 9001:2000, ISO 14001:2000; OHSAS1 80 00 c er tif ie d co mpany suppli es beach sand mi nerals to t he for ei gn an d do me st ic market. It caters the requirements of developed countrieslikeU.S.A,U.K,Germany,A u s t r a l i a , J a p a n e t c . T h e m a j o r m i n e r a l p r o d u c t s o f I R E L a r e I l m e n i t e , R u t i l e , Sillimanite, Zircon and Zirflour IRE in Chavara is known for supplying of Ilmenite (TiO2 bearing mineral) to the TiO2i n d u s t r y . IREL Chavara is one of the o ld est a nd l ea di ng pu bli c sector undert akings under t he control of Department of Atomic Energy. It is an ISO 9001:2000, ISO14001:2004, andOHSAS18001:1999 certified company supplies beach sand minerals to theforeignandd o m e s t i c c u s t o m e r s . T h e m a j o r m i n e r a l s p r o d u c t s o f I R E L a r e I l m e n i t e , R u t i l e , Sillimanite, Zircon and Zirflour.

Reason for selecting IREL IREL is one of the major mineral producing public sector companies of its kind in IndiaIn this study I will be covering organization as a whole briefly. CHAPTER 2 INDUSTRY PROFILE Rare earths elements, series of chemical elements of the periodic table. The Rare elementsinclude the elements with atomic numbers 57 through 71. In the early years theseelements were considered as rare elements and so they are called as rare earth metals.Later many elements in this group were found splendid but their name remainedunchanged. The primary source of rare earth elements is greenish yellow colouredmineral sand, which is Monazite .Its availability in nature is confined to certain beachesand rock found in certain countries. The beaches containing the monazite are found mixedwith other minerals too. Most of these are ores for valuable metals. An ore is a mineralfrom which metal can be separated economically. These ores are Ilmenite, Rutile, andZircon. Ilmenite and Rutile forms the ore for Titanium, Zircon for Zirconium; eventhough Aluminium bearing metal Garnet and Sillimanite are also found along with these beach sand minerals. But they are not commercially exploited for Aluminium productiondue to economic reasons. However Garnet and Sillimanite, in their natural form, arecommercially significant. Ilmenite which is black in colour constitutes a major chunk of these minerals (60%) presence of these minerals makes the beaches appear black. Theseminerals are commercially known as beach sand minerals or heavy minerals.The origin of beach sand is from rocks, which are rich with heavy minerals. This sand particle reaches sea through rivers. The sea level is not remaining constant. It is regardedthat the sea level, it is now really 100 meters above what we had seen 20,000 years ago.This white sand seen at the beach area contains he main constitute as Quartz. This islighter than black sand .As a result of movements of the sea this sand will erode away and black sand get deposited. The black sand thus deposited 100 years ago is mined and processed.In th e y ea r 1789 Fr . Wil li am Geor ge (1761- 1817) d isco ve re d Il me ni te a t kn ower i nEngland and started that this black sand contains some important metal. But he failed todiscover which metal it was. After

several time, in the year1875 the Hungarian scientistMartin Heen Witch Klapporth found the same metal contents in the Rutile minerals aboutwhich Fr.William George mentioned. After a series o investigations are found thosemetals content as Titanium after Titan of Greek mythology.Technology developed over the years has made the beach sand. Minerals are utilized in avariety of industrial and domestic applications. Monazite was mainly used in the gas mantle industry. After the advent of electricity its demand decreased in the gas mantlei ndust ry, P ig me nt i ndustr y, wel di ng elect rode i ndustr y, S ill i m an it e is used in h ig ht em perature r efractor y indust ry, cer ami c indu str y et c Zir co n is used in foundri es,ceramics, and refractories and in the manufacture of Zirconium chemicals, metals andalloys. Zirflour used in foundries for high temperature castings. Garnet is used in themanufacture of abrasive polishing glass, TV tubes for sand lasting and for water filtration.The beach sand mining and processing industry has vast future because of their demand innuclear industry too. In the present scenario of booming economy in India and Chinathere is huge demand for the beach sand minerals, Ilmenite in particular.The current world production capacity of Ilmenite and other titanium feed stocks for production of titanium oxide pigment titanium metal, welding electrodes etc is around 70lakhs million tons per annum (tpa). Approximately half of this is from beach sands andthe balance from Ilmenite rocks mostly found in Canada and Norway. In view of thelimited supply of natural Rutile, its share of consumption in pigment production is rather small and 55% of its total availability of about 5lakh (tpa) is used in the non pigmentapplications predominantly in the production of welding rod and titanium metal. The pr esent pr oducti on c ap ac it y of p ig me nt in the worl d j ust above 40 lakhs tpa Nort hAmerica is the largest producer with 37% of the global capacity is the second largest producer and Asia-Pacific region with 21% capacity, is the third. The balance 10%isdistributed among the rest of the world.India has the largest resources base of 278 million tones for Ilmenite. This is the singlelargest and Ilmenite .This is the single largest and least exploited mineral deposit in theworld. However 10% of this is only mineable.

Resources base in India for other minerals are:

In India the installed production capacity for Ilmenite is around 5-2 lakh tpa (5-6% of global Ilmenite production) and the production of Ilmenite and Rutile during 2004-2005was over 3-5 lakh tonnes and 1300 tonnes respectively Pr esen tl y t her e a re f ew pr ivat e or gani zati ons engaged i n the mi ni ng a nd m in era lseparation of beach sand minerals. The Indian players at present are Transworld garnet private limited, VV minerals, Earth minerals private limited, Tutucorin. Titanium Resource and value addition

It can be seen that value will be increased about 100 time through value addition naturalIlmeniteKey success factor for the beach sand mineral industry are: Increase the Ilmenite capacity to reach economic scale of production. Value addition projects in minerals and rare earths compounds. Initiate action to develop new mining areas. Forward integrate through stake in world leader in pigment industry like Tinfoss,DuPont or selling up a pigment plant. Explore other mining options in neighbouring countries.

Social and political EnvironmentGovt; understanding is considered necessary to safe guard the integrity and welfare of thecommunity as a whole, to enable to the economy, to plan for the overall rapid progressand prosperity and to undertake and execute schemes and projects a vital to the need of the nations.Till 1998, IREL was enjoying monopoly in the beach sand mineral market but the Govt; passed a mineral policy in 1998 starting that any private parties can be enter into miningarea. In the states of Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh, private players have alreadyentered into beach sand industry. How ever in Kerala, private participation was much Berchmans Institute of Management studies 5