"At the high-level meeting of the State Mining Ministers, Karnataka's Minister for Mines and Geology Vinay Kulkarni said that the state will start the auction process for 14 iron ore mines by August this year," a senior government official said.
The minister said that auction was delayed due to issues relating to the applicable stamp duty, the official added.
In July 2015, Supreme Court had directed Karnataka government to commence the auction of 15 'C' category iron ore mines in which end-user firms dealing in steel, sponge iron or pelletisation only would be able to take part.
So far, Odisha is the only state to have auctioned an iron ore mine, which was won by the Ruias-promoted Essar Group. The auction will help the state government earn a revenue, including royalty, DMF and NMET, of Rs 11,328 crore over a period of 50 years.
According to government data, domestic production of iron ore was 169 million tonnes (MT) in 2011-12 and 137 MT in 2012-13 against consumption of 101 MT and 103 MT, respectively.
In 2015-16, India mined about 155 MT of the ore against 129 MT a year-ago.