India: Karnataka to auction 6 iron ore, 1 limestone mine in Dec'22

Karnataka will auction 6 iron ore and one limestone mine in the month of December, resuming auctions under far more favorable market conditions than before.

Of these, three are lapsed leases, including MSPL's lease number 2416 in Vijaynagara to which more area has been added. Two blocks- Jaisinghpura South and Jaisinghpura North - have been created from dividing a large area over which Dalmia Cements (Bharat) once had rights. The auction will take place after the steep 50% export duty was removed last month. The duty had been imposed a day after the Supreme Court allowed Karnataka miners - specifically barred from exports more than a decade back - to export again.

The 480-hectare limestone mine, Chamanur, lies in Kalburgi district. Industry sources in the state say the mines will not be constrained by the district wise production cap that has since also been relaxed.

The list of mines expected to be auctioned this month were shared at an Investors' conclave held jointly by the Ministry of Coal and the Ministry of Mines in Bangalore recently. Pralhad Joshi, Union Minister for both, senior officials from both ministries and Karnataka and Chief Minister Basavaraj Somappa Bommai attended the event.

Sanjay Lohiya, Additional Secretary, Ministry of Mines said the reforms of March 2021- which did away with end use restrictions and allowed transfer of valid old environmental clearances to the preferred bidder - have quickened mineral auctions. Since the reforms, 108 mineral blocks had been auctioned, the same number auctioned over the preceding six years. Auction of 70 blocks was underway in various states, with GSI having explored 200 more blocks that were ready for auctions, he added.

The government has auctioned 216 mineral blocks since FY16, post MMDR Amendment Act, 2015, out of which 69 were iron ore and 6 were iron ore and manganese ore mines. As many as 24 iron ore mine blocks have been auctioned successfully in Karnataka thus far.