After advocating ban on iron ore exports from the country, the Orissa Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik has urged the Centre to immediately impose a total ban on chromite exports.

The demand has been made by Patnaik in the light of rapidly depleting chromite reserves in the country and also keeping in view the requirement of the raw material for stainless steel units and chromite ore manufacturers in the state.

He has written to the Union mines minister Dinsha Patel, requesting him to take expeditious steps to effect ban on chromite exports.

Chromite reserves in the country were estimated at 66 million tonnes (as on April 1, 2005) with 95 per cent of the reserves being concentrated in Orissa.

"Compared to the world's total chromite reserves, the country has only about one per cent of the reserves. Despite the low reserves, export of chromite is allowed and 1.9 million tonnes were exported in 2008-09. Over 75 per cent of the mineral is being exported to China. If exports are allowed to continue at this rate, I am apprehensive that the chromite reserves in the country may not last for more than two decades,&" Patnaik wrote in the letter to the Union mines minister.

Stating that the Union steel ministry is also in favour of a ban on chromite exports, Patnaik has said that a host of stainless steel units and chrome ore manufacturers which have set up their bases in the state need chrome ore as an input.

To substantiate his demand, he has cited the example of Zimbabwe which despite having 10 per cent of the world's chromite reserves, has already enforced ban on chrome ore exports from April 2011 to conserve its finite resource.

In November last year, Patnaik had sought the intervention of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to announce an immediate ban on exports of the mineral ore, saying such a move would bring down prices of ore and help regulate mining activities.

Patnaik had earlier urged the Prime Minister to announce a ban on iron ore exports and had also raised this demand at the meeting of the National Development Council (NDC) held on October 22.

"The boom in iron ore prices in the last decade has created perverse incentives for mining activities to be carried out in an unregulated manner. A ban on the export of iron ore should be immediately imposed. This will not only bring down domestic prices of iron ore but also encourage local industries to invest in technologies to utilize the iron ore prices presently being exported, besides ensuring that mining activities are regulated and sustainable,&" Patnaik had said in his letter to the Prime Minister.