The government of the western Indian coastal state of Goa will hold e-auction sales on March 24 this year of 1.6 million mt of iron ore lying idle at pitheads of mines across the state, a government official said on Wednesday, March 17.
The official said that an estimated 15 million mt of iron ore had been lying idle at mines which were closed down in 2018 following a Supreme Court order on the grounds that renewals of mining leases of Goa mines were illegal as the mandatory auction route had not been adopted.
Of the total idle iron ore stocks, about 12 million mt have been sold via e-auction since then.
The previous e-auction held by the Goa government had offered 3 million mt, of which only 1.1 million mt was successfully sold owing to the poor response from buyers.