Bhushan Power & Steel Bags A New Mining Block in Odisha

Bhushan Power & Steel Ltd (BPSL) has emerged as the successful bidder for the Netrabandha Pahar iron ore block. BPSL won the block meant for commercial mining after 17 hours of intense bidding. BPSL quoted a revenue share of 82 per cent with the Odisha government from its mining operations. After emerging as the preferred bidder, BPSL turned out to be the second Bhushan Group firm after Bhushan Steel Ltd which bagged the Kalamang captive iron ore block through competitive bids in Odisha.

The Netrabandh Pahar block located in Sundargarh's Koira sector has geological reserves of 77.25 million tonnes of which 61.9 million tonnes are high grade deposits. The total concession area is spread over 139 hectares with forest land making up 112 hectares. The onus would be on the successful bidder to obtain all regulatory clearances. The companies who had submitted bids for Netrabandha Pahar are Serajuddin and Company, Shri Bajrang Power and Ispat Ltd, NMDC, MSPL Ltd, Maithan Ispat Ltd, Feegrade & Company Pvt Ltd, JSPL, Bhushan Power & Steel Ltd, JSW Steel Ltd, Essel Mining & Industries Ltd, Vedanta Ltd, Rashtriya Ispat Nigam Ltd (RINL), Shri Jagannath Steels & Power Ltd, Orissa Metaliks Pvt Ltd and Tata Metaliks Ltd.

Bhushan Steel on last Friday won the Kalamang iron ore block in a round of intense bidding, outbidding heavyweights like Tata Steel, Jindal Steel & Power Ltd (JSPL), JSW Steel, another Bhushan Group firm- Bhushan Power & Steel Ltd and Vedanta Ltd. The preferred bidder- Bhushan Steel has offered to share 100 per cent of the revenue with the Odisha government from its iron ore mining operations. The steel company would get a Letter of Intent (LoI) from the state government to develop the iron ore block.

Odisha was also the first state to auction an iron ore block -- the Ghoraburhani-Sagasahi block bagged by Essar Steel. Essar Steel has proposed a production capacity of 7.16 million tonne per annum (mtpa) run of the mine product from the iron ore block. As part of the project, the steel company is also setting up a crushing & screening plant and a beneficiation plant with a capacity of 6.7 mtpa over an area of 139.16 hectares (ha) at Ghoraburhani, Sagasahi and Kalmang villages situated in Sundargarh district.