By Our Correspondent
BHUBANESWAR: The online auction for the Thakurani-A1 Iron Ore Block in Keonjhar in Odisha on Tuesday started , with a Premium of 101.05 Percent. Final bidders will be announced by 1 or 1..30 PM today after the end of auction period. The block is a key, virgin, G3-level explored area with over 50 million tonnes of iron, auction for which started at 11 AM
The Thakurani A1 Iron Ore block was part of a recent auction round for 12 virgin mineral blocks notified by the Odisha Directorate of Mines and Geology in December 2025.
Specific to Thakurani-A1 (an iron ore block with resources of approximately 50.532 million tonnes at >35% Fe cutoff), reports indicate that 19 companies submitted bids. This is grouped with the Rengalaberha North-East Extension and Nuagan West iron ore blocks in Keonjhar, which together saw 19 bids, and sources describe strong participation from most integrated steelmakers for Thakurani-A1 specifically.
Major iron ore blocks in this round attracted significant interest, with over 20–22 bidders for some (e.g., Alaghat West had 22).
Bidders across these key blocks included major players like Tata Steel, JSW Steel, ArcelorMittal Nippon Steel, Vedanta, Jindal Steel, Rungta Sons, Patnaik Minerals, Kashiv Group, and others from the steel and mining sectors. Auction outcomes (e.g., preferred bidder) still be pending.
