Govt making efforts for Chiria mines renewal in SAIL's favour

The government today said it is making efforts for renewal of leases for mining iron ore from Chiria reserve in Jharkhand, home to about 2 billion tonnes of rich deposits, in SAIL's favour.

State-owned Steel Authority of India Ltd (SAIL) and Jharkhand government have locked horns over renewal of leases for over five years now and out of six leases at Chiria at present with SAIL, renewal of three is under dispute.

"Out of the six leases at Chiria at present with SAIL, renewal of three leases are under dispute with the government of Jharkhand and is at present pending before the Supreme Court and two leases are under deemed extension," Minister of State A Sai Prathap told Rajya Sabha in a written reply.

Of the leases that SAIL has at present, three, Ajitaburu, Sukri-latur and Tatiburu, are under dispute, while two, Dhobil and Ankua, are under deemed extension, he said.

He added that due to sustained efforts by the Centre and SAIL, "government of Jharkhand has conveyed in-principle approval on October 23, 2009  for renewal of Budhaburu (Mc-Lellan) lease of Chiria iron ore mine containing around 800 million tonnes of iron ore."

"Total estimated reserves with SAIL in the leases of Chiria iron ore mines are about 1,840 million tonnes," Prathap said.

Earlier, in October SAIL had said it was confident that it would soon get to mine iron ore from Chiria reserves.

Last year, the firm had got assurance from Jharkhand government for renewal of mining leases over about half of the two billion-tonnes iron ore deposits in the Chiria and Gua region of the state.

Besides SAIL, major steel players like ArcelorMittal, Tata Steel and JSW Steel have also been looking to get share in Chiria mines.

Eying share of the remaining part the high-grade mineral from the region, ArcelorMittal had earlier said that it is also in talks with the state government to secure iron ore from the deposits.

The mines were originally allotted to Indian Iron and Steel Company, which was merged with SAIL in 2005.

While SAIL claims the ownership of the Chiria reserves by virtue of the merger, the Jharkhand government disputes it.