Vedanta, Hindalco among 34 firms to put bids for Commercial Coal Auction-II

Most of the bidders are from iron and steel industry; three state-owned companies have also participated

For the second round of bidding under the commercial coal auction, the ministry of coal has received technical bids from 34 companies including Vedanta Ltd, Balco, Hindalco, Sunflag Iron & Steel, Adani Power and Adhunik Power etc. Most of the bidders are from steel and iron industry.

There are three state-owned companies which have also submitted bids, namely Chhattisgarh Mineral Development Corporation Ltd, Jhar Mineral Resources Pvt Ltd, MP Natural Resources Power Ltd.

Highest number of bids were submitted by Sunflag Iron & Steel Company and Aurbindo Realty. Burakhap Small Patch coal mine in Jharkhand received the highest number of bids of 5 among all mines.

Coal ministry has put 19 mines for auction in the second round of the auction. Out of the total mines, 10 are fully explored, 9 are partially explored mines. There are four coking coal mines and the balance 15 mines are non-coking coal mines. Two or more bids have been received for eight coal mines, coal ministry said in its statement.

The Centre in 2020 opened the coal mining sector with private companies entering the arena of commercial mining and sale of coal – 47 years after coal mining was nationalised in India. It amended the Coal Mines (Special Provisions) Act, 2015, in May to open the coal auction for non-mining, MSMEs and foreign companies. The two-part auction concluded in November when companies submitted bids for 19 out of the total 38 coal blocks on offer.

Among the winning bidders were Adani Enterprises, Hindalco, Vedanta ltd, Essel Mining of the Aditya Birla Group, Jindal Steel & Power ltd, and several new and non-mining companies such as Aurobindo Realty, Yazdani International, JMS Mining, and Boulder Stone Mart. Almost 65 per cent bidders were from the ‘non-end user’ category i.e they are not direct coal user.

Post this, the Centre decided to award mines for commercial use under rolling auction. Pralhad Joshi, union minister for coal and mines in March this year said, “We will upload a comprehensive list of mines along with key technical data and bidders can submit their preferences for the mines to be included in the next tranche of auction. This would be a continuous process and would result in expediting the auction setup. Moreover, it will also help bidders in planning better and would further enhance transparency in the system.”

In order to keep the interest of new and small players intact, the coal ministry is offering only small- and medium-sized coal mines in the second round. Most of the mines offered have been evaluated to not fall in eco-sensitive zones, said a senior official.

The bids submitted in the current round would be evaluated by a 'Technical Evaluation Committee' and the technically qualified bids would be allowed to take part in e-auction to be held on the platform of MSTC E-commerce.