Reliance Cement wins MP coal mine on first day of auction

The Anil Ambani-led Reliance Cement, emerging as the highest bidder on the first day of coal block auctions, Saturday won the Sial Ghoghri mine in Madhya Pradesh containing 5.61 million tonne of reserves.

"Bidding for Sial Ghogri has just finished and the winning bid is for Rs.1,402 per tonne. The winning bidder will have to pay that amount for extracting each tonne of coal to the Madhya Pradesh state government," union Power and Coal Minister Piyush Goyal told reporters here.

For an annual peak rated capacity of 0.3 million tonne (MT) per annum, the premium paid for the mine over the floor price was Rs.37.56 crore per annum. The Madhya Pradesh government will get Rs.797.74 crore revenue over the entire life of the mine, which is a premium of Rs.712.39 crore over the floor price of the block.

Two mines - Sial Ghoghri in Madhya Pradesh and Talabira I in Odisha - were put up on the first day of bidding. The Supreme Court had in September last year cancelled the allotment of 214 mines alloted between 1993 and 2010.

Sial Ghoghri is reserved for the non-regulated cement and steel sectors, while the bidders were Hindustan Zinc, OCL Iron and Steel and Reliance Cement.

Talabira-I, reserved for the power sector, has 33.84 MT of reserves, and the five bidders who have technically qualified for it are Adani Power, Essar Power, GMR Chhattisgarh Energy Ltd, OPG Power Generation and Sesa Sterlite.

Around 134 bidders have cleared the initial stages of eligibility for the coal auction for 21 blocks put up by the government.

Hindalco, Jindal Steel and Power (JSPL), Bharat Aluminium Company (Balco), GVK Power, JSW Energy and Ambuja Cement are among the 134 companies which have technically qualified for the finacial bidding that began Saturday.