The government of eastern Indian state of Odisha will put three iron ore blocks up for auction by January 2017, a government official said on Monday, August 22.
The official said that the government had nearly completed the G2 level of exploration of the three iron ore blocks and official notification for holding the auction would be issued by the end of the current month or by early next month.
The newly promulgated auction rules had made a minimum G2 level of exploration mandatory before the auctioning of mineral resources by the state government and the delay in achieving such exploration was the primary reason why only one iron ore block had been allocated through the auction route up to now, the official said.
However, the official declined to disclose details of the reserve estimates for the three iron ore blocks to be put up for auction, stating that such information would be part of the official notification.