ArcelorMittal Nippon Steel Participating In Auction Of Iron Ore Mines In Odisha

New Delhi: ArcelorMittal Nippon Steel (AMNS) is part of the ongoing auctions of iron ore mines in Odisha.

Confirming this, AMNS CEO Dilip Oommen said at an industry event,  “We are participating in ongoing auctions of mines in Odisha.”

Without divulging the number of mines his company was bidding for, he said, “it is more of iron ore, less of coal.”On the importance of the opportunity, Oommen said, “Any steel company has to securitise its sources of raw materials and AMNS is no different. So it is also participating in the auction process to securitise its  iron requirements.”

Big companies buy iron ore fines from private miners at Dabuna, Odisha. These are then treated and sent through slurry pipeline to Paradip for conversion into pellets and shipped to Hazira in Gujarat.

The Odisha government had released an NIT (notices inviting tender) for 20 iron ore and manganese blocks on December 6, 2019. The technical bids were expected to begin in the first week of January. The auction process for these mines has begun and companies have started submitting their bids, said sources.

While 15 of the 20 mines to be auctioned predominantly have iron ore, three have both iron ore and manganese, while the remaining are primarily manganese reserves. The 18 mines containing iron ore reserves together hold 1,600 million tonne of which 33 per cent (five mines) are reserved for specified end-use (captive usage). These are old mines where leases are set to expire in March 2020.

ArcelorMittal Nippon Steel India (AMNS India) is a 60:40 joint venture between LN Mittal-owned ArcelorMittal and Japan-based Nippon Steel Corporation.