BHUBANESWAR: The nominated authority of the Union Ministry of Coal on Monday launched a second attempt to auction 11 coal mines in the country including three from Odisha. Alaknanda coal block of Talcher coalfield in Angul, Burapahar block of Ib Valley coalfield in Sundargarh and Dip extension of Belpahar block of Ib Valley coalfield in Jharsuguda district are up for auction from Odisha. While the Burapahar block is fully explored with an estimated coal reserve of 547.88 million tonne (MT), the other two are partially explored. Belpahar block has the highest reserve of 2,500 MT of different grades of coal and Alakanada block has a fossil reserve of around 500 MT.
These mines were part of the 14 coal blocks taken up for auction in the first attempt launched on March 25 this year. The auction was cancelled as they fetched single bids. The auction shall be held online through a transparent two-stage process, on the basis of percentage revenue share. The key features of the auction process include introduction of National Coal Index, ease in participation with no restriction on prior coal mining experience, full flexibility in coal utilisation, optimised payment structures, efficiency promotion through incentives for early production and use of clean coal technology, the Ministry of Coal said.
While the representative price of coal from Burapahar block is fixed at `1,557 per tonne, the successful bidder will have to make an upfront payment of over `213.26 crore and security deposit of `42.65 crore before issue of vesting order. Similarly, the preferred bidder for partially explored Alaknanda block will have to pay exploration expense of over `32.98 crore and bid security of `8.24 crore while `37.23 crore (exploration cost) and `9.30 crore (bid security) will have to be paid for Belpahar Dip Extension.The sale of tender document will start from September 27 and continue till November 24, 2021.
November 29 is the last date for submitting bids which will be opened for technical round on November 30. The last date for evaluation of technical bid is December 22, 2021. Those who qualify in the technical round will be allowed to participate in the financial bidding from December 23, 2021 to January 5, 2022.
RUNGTA BAGS SECOND IRON ORE BLOCK
Bhubaneswar: Rungta Mines Limited has bagged Chandiposhi iron ore block in Koira circle of Sundargarh district by offering a premium of 113.10 per cent (pc) over the base price. This is the second mineral block of the company which had successfully bidded for Jumka Pathiriposhi Pahar iron ore block in the same mining circle on September 24. Sources said all the 11 bidders for iron ore block qualified with Ramgad Mineral/MSPL offering the highest bid of 85.5 pc. With a geographical area of 131.58 hectare, the unexplored mine has mineral reserve of 35.86 MT (at Fe 55 pc) and 11.21 MT (at Fe 45-55 pc).