Odisha Govt Annuls Iron Ore Mine Block Auctions; to Issue Fresh Documents Shortly

Department of Steel & Mines (Odisha govt) has decided to annul the auction process of the three phases that it announced in Oct'19 including 20 iron ore & manganese ore leases which are expiring in Mar'20.

An official from Director of Mines, Odisha shared with SteelMint that "All the three phases of Odisha mine block auctions have been annulled and we will be releasing the new documents for the cancelled blocks by 6th Dec".

Price of tender document shall be retained as such INR 5 lakh for each block. However such price paid by any bidder in response to the aforesaid annullted NIT (Notice Inviting Tenders) shall be adjusted against the application fee for fresh bid by the said bidder for the same block in the fresh NIT for auction.

Appropriate amendments in the tender documents shall be carried out incorporating the following condition & consequent changes be made in the tender documents as required. "A bidder shall submit only 1 bid for a particular mineral block. In case a bidder submits more than one bid for a particular mineral block, either directly or indirectly through its Affiliate (s) will be rejected."

In case requisite clearance/approvals are available to the new lessee (successful bidder), he shall be bound to produce at least 80% of the avg actual production of the mine for the preceding two years during the first two years of the mining lease, & this will be incorporated in the MDPA as production target. Provided that this requirement may be relaxed if the state govt. is satisfied that the shortfall in the production is entirely for the reasons beyond the control of the lessee. Provided further that in case of failure to achieve the projected production, without prejudice to any other actions including recovery of such amount as applicable for failure to achieve the production target as per the MDPA, the successful bidder (mining lease) may be debarred from participating in the future auctions of mineral blocks for 3 yrs.

Odisha govt. had earlier invited bids for grant of iron ore and manganese ore mining leases via three phases in the tender documents floated on 4th Oct'19; 14th Oct'19 & 18 Oct'19. The no. of mining leases put up for auction were 10, 10 & 9 respectively. Odisha being India's largest iron ore producing state & accounts for 50% of country's iron ore output.

Auction Timelines- Govt of Odisha- Major Minerals