States likely to auction 20 iron ore blocks in FY'17

Karnataka will offer 14 iron ore blocks

States are expected to auction around 20 iron ore blocks in the current financial year, including some of those which were left unsold in the last round.

Odisha was the only state in the 2015-16 to have auctioned an iron ore mine, which was won by 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.

"State governments have said that they will auction about 19-20 iron ore blocks this financial year, which also includes mines that could not be auctioned in the first phase of auction," a senior government official said.

This will include 14 iron ore blocks to be offered by Karnataka, Odisha (3), Rajasthan (1) and one each by Telangana and Maharashtra, the official said.

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.

Conforming the development, another source said in total around 106 mines containing minerals like iron ore, bauxite, limesotne, gold, manganese, copper, phosphate and potash would be offered by sates for auction for the second phase. These also include leftover blocks from the first phase.

"In the last auction, 17 blocks could not be sold due to insufficient number of applications of initial bids on account of various factors such as the quantity and grade of ore, quality of the mineralisation studies, land ownership pattern, dull market scenario and end use conditions imposed by states in the bidding documents," he added.