Inter-ministerial panel to submit report on ore linkage by July 15

The inter-ministerial committee of the state government formed to formulate a long-term ore linkage policy for local industries is all set to submit its report by July 15.

"Our report on ore linkage is almost in the final stage. The committee will have its last round of meeting on July 11 and then we will submit our report by July 15. We already had wide consultations with all stakeholders with respect to formulating the policy. Our objective is to ensure that industries operating in the state without raw material linkages get timely and adequate ore supplies at suitable prices", said committee chairman and state finance minister Prasanna Acharya.

The committee, which was originally supposed to submit its report by January 30, has already jumped three extended timelines.

The committee's mandate is to suggest measures for making iron ore, manganese, bauxite and chrome ore available to the mineral-based industries in the state in a fair and equitable manner through the state mine PSU, Odisha Mining Corporation (OMC) and other mining lessees.

Besides, the committee will suggest modalities for supply of ore to these industries on a sustainable basis through appropriate long-term ore linkage arrangement.

It will also suggest a framework for making the mineral sales to the industries through a transparent process.

The state government had inked 95 MoUs (memorandum of understanding) with private players across sectors like steel, aluminium and power. Of the 50 MoUs with the steel companies, 30 have gone into either partial or full scale production.

The steel & mines department had received a number of representations from mineral based industries that they are facing shortage of ore required for running their industries.It may be noted, Vedanta Aluminium, which had set up one million tonne alumina refinery at Lanjigarh in Kalahandi district, has shut down the plant since December 5, last year owing to raw material shortage.