State-owned mining giant NMDC Limited plans to appeal to the Supreme Court, to extend it mining period at the Panna diamond mines, in Madhya Pradesh, reports say. The court panel had asked the NMDC to shut down its Panna diamond mines by June 2016, due to ecological concerns, and now the entity intends to period be extended upto 2020 while being attentive to environmental protection, reports add.

The NMDC had been asked to submit a closure plan for Panna diamond mines. The permission to mine at Panna was initially upto 2020, but the same was reduced to 2016, owing to disputes cropping up. NMDC noted that the Madhya Pradesh state and Central government has given full support to NMDC, as the Panna mines are a resource of almost a million carats of good quality diamonds, as per NMDC, and not exploring this potential will be a loss, reports say.

Also, NMDC has applied for prospecting licences in districts near Panna. The intent is to ultimately set up fully mechanized diamond mines, so that when Panna mines close, the other mines would be ready and NMDC’s diamond mining activities would continue, reports say. NMDC is hopeful of the Supreme Court extending the mining period at Panna, reports say.