Indian state-run miner NMDC Limited has applied to the government of the eastern Indian state of Odisha for the reservation of at least six iron ore mines for preferential allotment under the relevant rules of Mines, Minerals Development and Regulation Act 2015, company sources said on Wednesday, July 31.
The sources said that, while NMDC has specifically sought allotment of the Malangtoli and Mankadnacha iron ore blocks, it has also sought four more iron ore blocks that might be suitable for allocation by the state government.
NMDC in its communication said that additional allotment of iron ore blocks in Odisha is necessary for the miner to achieve its Vision Plan 2025 to ramp up its iron ore mining capacity from around 35 million mt to 100 million mt by 2025.
Significantly NMDC has been hauled up by national auditors, Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG), for setting production targets without correlation to prevailing market conditions.
In a report tabled before India’s parliament, the CAG said that NMDC’s Strategic Management Plan (SMP) Vision 2025 had fixed “over-ambitious targets of production of iron ore of 75 million mt by 2018-19 and 100 million mt by 2024-25.”