The mining season in Goa is heading towards a closure amid protests by locals against rampant and illegal ore extraction and transportation in their villages.

Industry players say that this was one of the worst patches with agitations by locals, court orders, hike demanded by transporters and moreover, unprecedented rise in the export duty by Union government marring the season.

Goa exports around 50 million metric tones of Iron Ore to various international markets including China, Japan and some of the European nations.

The state has 90 mines operational with 15,000 trucks transporting the ore from mining site to the jetties built on the river fronts.

The figures state that 4,000 trucks were added to the fleet, this season itself.

The mining operations are shut down once South West monsoons hit the costal state in the first week of June.

The ore cannot be extracted and transported in the wet climate.

Goa Mineral Ore Exporters' Association Secretary Glen Kalavampara said that South Goa district witnessed maximum agitations during the season.

"It was for the first time that truckers went on strike twice or thrice. This had never happened," he said.

The transporters' strike was resultant of the High Court directives that banned overloading and subsequent enforcement of the directives by State Transport department.

The raining penalties from the state authorities forced truckers to ask for hike in transportation rates.

The rate per kg/tonne was hiked from Rs 5 to Rs 11.20 after state officials held negotiations between striking truckers and mining firms.