Inter-departmental panel to consider lease extension of nine mines

The inter-departmental committee of the state government would meet soon to consider extension of lease validity of nine mines.

The committee headed by the development commissioner is slated to vet cases of seven iron and manganese ore mines of R B Das, T P Mohanty, Tarini Minerals, BC Mohanty and Mala Ray and two chromite mines owned by Tata Steel and B C Mohanty.

The inter-departmental committee would meet soon to examine the cases of these nine mines. After scrutiny of their cases, the committee would make recommendation on their extension, said an official source.

In toto, the state government has issued orders to extend the lease validity of 29 mines- 21 captive and the balance non-captive mines. Out of these 29 leases, 25 are iron and manganese ore mines. Supplementary lease deeds have been signed for 20 mines.

The lease deeds have been executed for mines owned by Tata Steel, Rungta Mines, Odisha Manganese & Minerals Ltd (OMM) and Aryan Mining & Trading Corporation Ltd (AMTC) to name a few.

The state government has so far garnered over Rs 700 crore from these miners by way of stamp duty and registration charges.

The enactment of the new Mines and Minerals (Development & Regulation) MMDR Act, 2015 has allowed extension of captive leases till 2030 and those of non captive mines till 2020.

At the time of issue of orders for lease extension, the government had stipulated certain conditions for compliance by the lessees. These included signing of supplementary lease deeds within three months of the order.

Other conditions to operate mines include payment of NPV (net present value) dues and complying with the Supreme Court order to be pronounced in the final disposal of the cases relating to the mines as well as pending orders on recommendations of the MB Shah Commission of enquiry and the central empowered committee (CEC) on illegal mining in the state.

An interim order of the Supreme Court in May 2014 had triggered shutdown of 26 iron and manganese ore mines in the state. The top court held that such leases cannot operate under the provisions of deemed extension under Mineral Concession Rules (MCR), 1960 unless the government passed express orders for their operations.

Due to the temporary closure of these mines, iron ore production in Odisha shrank 39 per cent to 47.35 million tonne in 2014-15 from 77.84 million tonne in 2014-15.