By Our Correspondent
BHUBANESWAR: With Merchant miners, those who had lost their running blocks in last auction, spending sleepless nights, the Odisha government will offer 16 more iron ore blocks for auction, of which 10 are already producing. The government will soon float tenders to offer the blocks for auction with a target to start operations by August 8, of the already producing mines.
The lease period of the producing mines have got over and the government without any delay wants operation of such mines to be resumed with a view to boost supplies of iron ore, supposedly short. The state auctioned all the 24 mines in FY21 whose lease got expired. As on date ,19 of the 24 auctioned mines have already started operation and production.
These blocks include Garamurarh, Behera-Bhanjipali, Pipalmunda, Naringpanga, Uskalvagu, Pureibahal, Chandiposhi, Jhumka Parthiriposi, Dholtapahad, Netrabandhapahad (west), Gandhalpada, Kasia, Unchabali and Kalimati. The 9 iron ore and manganese blocks ready for auction include Purheibahal, Chandiposhi, Gandhalpada, Netrabandha Pahar (west), Dholtapahar, Jumka Pathriposhi, Kalimati, Unchabali and Kasia.
The estimated iron ore reserve in these blocks is 574 million tones located at Pureibahal (38.30 Million Tonnes), Chandiposhi (33.73 MT), Jhumka-Pathiriposi (114 MT), Dholtapahad (23.92 MT), Netrabandha Pahar-West (17.27 MT) in Sundaragarh district; and Rengalaberha-North-East (28.87 MT), Gandhalpada (314.37 MT), Unchabali (3.6 MT) and Kalimati in Kendujhar district. While Kalimati is a manganese block (0.686 MT) and Unchabali is a mix of iron and manganese, the rest blocks are iron ore. Iron ore is the raw material for steel production.
