By Our Correspondent
BHUBANESWAR/JODA/BARBIL/KOIRA: With lease expiring by March 31, 2020, Naveen Patnaik led BJD Government in Odisha on Friday invited offer and proposals for as many as 20 Iron, Ore and Manganese Mines spreading across State’s mineral rich districts of Keonjhar, Sundargarh and Jajpur.
Notifications for the two lots slated for October 4 and 12 and letter letters of intent will be sent by January 3 and 15 2020, respectively. The mining auction will be done as per the Mines and Minerals (Development and Regulation) Amendment Act) of 2015 introduced by the Narendra Modi led NDA Government.
Sources close to the developments at the Office of Directorate of Mines in Bhubaneswar, however revealed that the State Government will auction 12 Iron Ore, 6 Iron, 2 Manganese and manganese (associate minerals in two lots. 5 of the leases have been reserved for Steel and Steel intermediaries manufacturers.
The State has also changed its mind on Rungta’s Jahang Iron ore block, Essel Mining’s Jilling-Longlata iron ore deposit, and Kalinga Mining Corporation’s Jurudi iron ore deposit. These were earlier identified for captive use, but will now be auctioned as merchant leases.
However, the government considered but chose not to amalgamate two other adjacent blocks of Feegrade Company Pvt Ltd and Bonai Industries Company Ltd.
Odisha delayed its mine auctions by a year, waiting for the Centre to increase an area cap that disqualified Tata Steel from participating in iron ore auctions. These working mines set to lapse in three months account for half the state’s iron ore production.
The Odisha Government seems going soft over the Nuagaon iron ore mine, the largest mine to be auctioned. Spread over 767.284 ha with reserves of 792.93 mt (of all grades of above 45% Fe ore), the Nuagaon mine equals all the other iron ore deposits in Odisha.
