A senior official of a mining firm in Goa has said that foreign funding might be behind those opposing the iron ore mining industry Goa.

P K Mukherjee, the Managing Director of Sesa Goa Limited said that the company does not know if foreign funding is behind the activism but warned that such aspects are harmful in the long run.

"When the country wants to invite huge investment in the mining sector through various provisions in the proposed MMRD Act, such negative painting of all miners with the same brush may do more harm than good in the medium to long-term," he said.

Mukherjee also said that is important for the government to protect business interest of all firms or the companies will lose markets in Japan, Korea and Europe, besides China that have taken years to establish.

He also said that the industry members want wrongdoers to be identified and taken to the propter judicial process. The Justice M B Shah Commission is expected to submit a report on illegal mining in the state. The state produces 54 million metric tonnes of ore in the country.

Mukherjee also outlined the urgent need to implement strengthen the monitoring apparatus under the state regulations framework.