India’s Jindal Steel has emerged as the preferred bidder for the Thakurani A1 iron ore block in the eastern state of Odisha, an Odisha government official said on Wednesday, March 11.
The company was declared the preferred bidder after submitting the highest bid at the auction of 12 mineral blocks completed by the Odisha government.
Once the acquisition of the iron ore block is formalized with the signing of a contract, the asset will augment raw material supplies for Jindal Steel Limited’s Angul steel mill in Odisha.
The Thakurani A1 block has an estimated reserve of 50 million mt, and Jindal Steel is expected to extract around 1.5-2 million mt of ore per year from the block, the official said.
It will take three years to develop the block, he added.
