Odisha Set To Auction 16 Mineral Blocks

Bhubaneswar: Odisha has identified 16 of 29 mineral blocks cleared by a high-level state government committee for auction in the next phase.

The Steel and Mines Department is all set to invite tenders for the 16 mineral blocks, including 9 Greenfield mines and three mines reserved for end use of industries, on Friday. The lease period of seven mines will expire by March 2020.

Eight of the nine virgin mines are iron ore blocks—six in Sundargarh district and two in Keonjhar district.

The new iron ore blocks identified for auction have an estimated reserve of 574 million tonnes, sources said.

Of the new iron ore blocks, Gandhalpada block in Keonjhar district has the highest ore reserve of 314.37 million tonnes while Unchabali has mineral occurrences of about 3.6 million tonnes.

The Naveen Patnaik government has decided to invite tenders for 13 iron ore and manganese blocks in next phase on October 14. These blocks are among 24 iron ore blocks, leases of which will expire by March 31, 2020.

The government has already invited bids for two chromite mines and decided to reserve Tata Steel’s Sukinda chromite mine for state-owned Orissa Mining Corporation.

A high-level committee chaired by development commissioner-cum-additional chief secretary that met from September 21 to 23 also decided to reserve the Guali iron ore mine, with an estimated resource of 198.74 million tonnes for another state-owned company, the sources said.