BHUBANESWAR: Auction of mineral blocks in the State saw an aggressive bidding on Wednesday with Sajjan Jindal led JSW Steel emerging the preferred bidder for Gonua iron ore block in Sundargarh district with an offer to pay a premium of 132 per cent. The aggression in the bidding went a notch higher with Shyam Ore (Jharkhand) Pvt Limited committing a record premium of 135 pc for Jilling-Lanagalota iron ore block in Keonjhar district.
This is the third merchant mines JSW bagged out of five blocks put under hammer during the ongoing auction in the State. The Gonua block has an estimated iron ore reserve of 119 million tonnes (MT).
The steel maker with a production capacity of 18 million tonnes per annum (MTPA) has already bagged two mines - Nuagaon iron ore and Narayanposhi iron ore blocks - with total reserves of 983.53 MT. The Nuagaon block in Keonjhar district has the highest reserve of 792.93 MT.
In a similar aggressive bidding last year JSW had acquired three mines in Karnataka, with an average weighted bid premium of 78.88 pc. The company was also declared preferred bidder for six category ‘C’ iron ore mines having estimated resource of around 120.714 MT in the e-auctions conducted by Karnataka government.
“JSW Steel is possibly securing iron ore linkages for its proposed greenfield steel project of 12 MTPA in Jagatsinghpur district of the State at an investment of over `53,000 crore,” industry sources said.“The high premium offered by JSW is a calculated move by the company. The high grade of ore available in Odisha will fetch good price when the demand is high in domestic and international markets,” another sources in the mining industry said.
Eleven bidders qualified in the technical round were competing for the block, auction of which lasted for nearly 28 hours till 3.30 pm Wednesday. The bidding which started on Tuesday spilled over to Wednesday.
Top steel makers like Tata Steel, JSW Steel, Jindal Steel and Power, ArcelorMittal India and Vedanta were bidding for the mining block. Others in the fray include Rungta Mines, KS Ahluwalia, Orissa Metaliks, Amalgam Steel and Power and Pro Minerals Pvt Ltd.
Earlier, ArcelorMittal India Pvt Ltd bagged Thakurani iron ore block while Serajuddin and Company retained its Balda mines.Shyam Ore pipped Essel Mining and eight others to grab Jilling-Langalota iron ore block, auction of which went on till late on Wednesday night. Essel is the current lease holder of Jilling block.Adani Enterprises, JSW Steel, Serajuddin & Co, , Amalgam Steel, Feegrade & Co Pvt Ltd, TP Sao and Fourway Infra are the other bidders for the mining block.
Correction
It has been wrongly mentioned that the auction of Gorumahisani iron block has been deferred due to legal impediment in the news item published on February 5 edition. However, the technical bid of Badampahar iron ore block has been put on hold in view of stay order by the Orissa High Court. The error is regretted.
Mines Auction
119 MT ore reserve at Gonua iron ore block
18 MTPA production capacity of JSW
983.53 MT total reserves of Nuagaon and Narayanposhi blocks bagged by JSW
792.93 MT alone with Nuagaon block in Keonjhar district
The company had made similar aggressive bidding last year too and acquired three mines in Karnataka