Hindalco wins one more coal block in Chattisgarh

Bags Gare Palma 4/4 mine at bid price of Rs 3,001/tonne

Continuing its aggressive bidding, Hindalco Industries bagged one more mine in the ongoing coal auction, taking the total number of blocks won by the firm to three that includes two in Chhattisgarh and one in Jharkhand.

"Hindalco is the highest bidder at Rs 3,001 (per tonne) for Gare Palma 4/4," Coal Secretary Anil Swarup tweeted.

Hindalco had on February 15 bagged Kathautia mine in Jharkhand and also won GareIV/5 mine in Chhattisgarh on February 19.

Gare Palma IV/4 mine in Chhatisgarh is the third block bagged in the ongoing auction by the Aditya Birla Group firm last night, sources said. The bidding for the mine continued for more than 12 hours yesterday.

The states will get over Rs 1 lakh crore, including royalty, over the next 30 years from sale of 17 coal blocks sold so far through the ongoing auction.

Besides, reverse auction for the power sector will result in benefits to the tune of Rs 37,050 crore to end-users by way of a cut in tariff, Coal Secretary Anil Swarup had said yesterday.

The government has put on block 19 mines in the first tranche of auction. Companies such as Jindal Power, Hindalco and Ultratech and others have bagged 17 of them so far.

The Gare Palma IV/4 mine has extractable reserves of 12.30 million tonne (MT).

Hindalco emerged as the successful bidder among companies like ACC, Balco, Godawari Power and Ispat, Jayaswal Neco Industries, Rungta Mines and SKS Ispat and Power, which were vying for it.

The block was previously held by Jayaswal Neco Ltd.

The mine on offer today is Gare Palma IV/1 in Chhattisgarh, which has extractable reserves of 49.57 MT.

The companies vying for the mine are Balco, Hindalco and Rungta Mines.

In a clarification to Bombay Stock Exchange, Jindal Steel & Power Ltd (JSPL) had said yesterday "in respect of the Coal Block of Gare Palma IV/1 (in Chhattisgarh to be put on sale tomorrow), the company has not qualified for the e-auction round on the basis of initial price offer submitted by it."

Gare Palma IV/1 was earlier allocated to Jindal Strips (now JSPL).

Tomorrow is the last day for the auction of mines in the first tranche. The auction of second lot of mines will start from February 25.