JSPL bags 200 MT iron ore block in Odisha auctions

Jindal Steel and Power Ltd (JSPL) has bagged an iron ore block in the ongoing auctions in Odisha with reserves of about 200 million tonnes (MT), a source said on Thursday.

The iron ore block, Guali mine, is spread over 365 hectares in the Keonjhar district of the state, the source said adding that other players that bid for the said block included JSW, Adani Group, KJS Ahluwalia among others.

JSPL won Guali mine on Wednesday. The mine with iron ore reserves of 198 MT has been bagged at a premium of 144 per cent," he said.

Securing iron ore linkages would help the company as JSPL looks to scale up its steel making capacity in India up to 8 MTPA (million tonne per annum) in financial year 2020-21, from about 6.5 MTPA estimated to be at the end of 2019-20 fiscal.

The development will allow the company to remain self-sufficient of the key raw material iron ore for years now, an expert said.

After the annulment of three notices inviting tender (NIT) in October 2019 for auction of iron ore and manganese blocks because of conflicts between participating bidders, the Odisha government released an NIT for 20 iron ore and manganese blocks on December 6, 2019.

While 15 of the 20 mines to be auctioned predominantly have iron ore, three have both iron ore and manganese, while the remaining are primarily manganese reserves.

The 18 mines hold iron ore reserves of 1,600 million tonnes of which 33 per cent (five mines) are reserved for specified end-use (captive usage). These are old mines where leases are set to expire in March.