The government of the eastern Indian state of Odisha has invited technical and financial bids for 10 iron ore manganese blocks in the region, a state government official said on Wednesday, October 9.
The official said that this, the first tranche of auction of mineral blocks, is part of the exercise to renew mining leases across the state that were scheduled for expiry on March 31, 2020. According to the official, of the 10 blocks for which the auction process has been initiated, seven blocks consist of pure iron ore reserves, while in case of three blocks both iron ore and manganese ore are co-existent.
At the same time, five of the ten blocks have been reserved for bids from end-use industries. The reserved blocks for specific end-use are Thakurani, Jaribahal, Roida II, Narayanposhi, and Ganua.
Though five of the mineral blocks have been reserved for specified end-use, government sources said that the definition of “specified end-use’ is presently ambiguous. It was pointed out that, while integrated steel mills and secondary steel mills would be eligible to bid for these five reserved blocks, it was not yet clear whether “specified end-users” included iron ore pellet manufacturers, stand-alone pig iron producers and sponge iron manufacturers.
The official said that the state government expected ‘intense’ bidding in the current round of auction, since the central government has increased the maximum acreage of a mining lease that one company can hold to 58 square kms, up from 10 square kms. Companies likes Tata Steel which already hold mining leases across 48 square kms will hence now be eligible to bid at the auction for new iron ore and manganese mining leases, the official added.
The auction is being conducted by state-run MSTC Limited and the last date for submission of bids had been fixed for November 18, 2019.