The government of the eastern Indian state of Odisha will finalize the reserve price for three iron ore reserves by the end of this month end and complete the auction process in December, a senior government official said on Thursday, November 19.
The process of determining the floor price of the three reserves will be supported by merchant bankers SBI Capital Markets Limited, the financial services arm of country's largest bank, State Bank of India (SBI), the official said.
According to the timelines set by the Odisha government, soon after the fixing of the floor price, the notice inviting tenders will be issued by November 30 and the bidding process and allocation to successful bidders will be completed by December 31, he added.
The Odisha iron ore reserves auctions will be the country's maiden initiative since the federal government amended the Mines, Minerals Development and Regulation Act making competitive bidding mandatory for allocation of all mineral resources in the country.
However, the official said that two iron ore reserves which figured in the original list of reserves to be put up for auction had been pulled out of the first round of bidding as the differential global positioning system of surveying the resource had not been completed.