ROURKELA: Putting worries of steel and iron manufacturers to rest, the Mining Department has begun the preliminary work for auction of eight operational mines under the Koida mining circle (KMC) of Sundargarh. This will address the mineral supply disruption after March 2020, which would have an impact on iron supply to local secondary iron and steel industries.
In two phases, the State Government notified auction of two captive mines and six merchant mines in the mining circle and bidders are visiting the mines to assess their mineral values with eye estimation. Mining Department sources informed that one each captive mine of PK Ahuluwalia and AMTC along with two each merchant mines of Rungta and BI & Co, one merchant mine of AMTC and one merchant mine of Feegrade will be auctioned.
Koida-based Deputy Director of Mines (DDM) Salil Behera said the mines going for auction include three iron ore mines, as many iron and manganese ores mines and two manganese ore mines with total production capacity of about 15 MTPA.
He said mining leases of these mines will be cancelled by March 2020 for having completed 50 years or more. Behera informed that the State Government wants early auction of these running mines and in the next phase, six to seven new mines in the mining circle to be auctioned.
As of now, 33 of total 77 mines in KMC limits are operational and in 2019-20, they are expecting total mineral production of about 40 MTPA against the 33 MTPA achieved in 2018-19.
Sources claimed that to keep these eight mines running, ownership and statutory clearances may get transferred for a period of two years. Earlier, auction was held for three new mines in KMC and they were bagged by ESSAR, Bhusan Steel and Bhusan Power. But, these mines are nowhere near operation.
Additionally, as per instruction of the Ministry of Steel, the raw materials division of SAIL is also readying to dispose of about 5 MT of its low-grade iron fines lying idle at its Barsuan, Kalta and Taldihi mines in KMC.
Union Steel Minister Dharmendra Pradhan had said SAIL acting as merchant miner would also enhance its iron ore production by 25 percent for sale to meet the disruption of 2020.