Karnataka to seek approval from SC to sell mines

The process to sell 15 of the 51 closed mines will start after the Supreme Court clears the move, Tushar Giri Nath, the province's mines secretary, said in a phone interview. The mines will be auctioned to steelmakers for their captive use and may benefit producers including JSW Steel Ltd., which owns the biggest steel plant in the region.

JSW Steel resorted to bulk imports of the commodity this year to meet its needs as local supplies dwindled. JSW Steel, India's third-largest producer of the alloy, will import as much as 6 million tonnes, or about a quarter of its needs, in the year-ending March 31 from abroad, compared with a "few thousand tonnes" last year, Group Chief Financial Officer Seshagiri Rao said in an interview last month.
 

The company has a 10 million tonne-a-year factory in Karnataka. The process to auction the mines has been prepared by Standard & Poor's Indian unit CRISIL Ltd, Nath said. The company will also help the state in evaluating bids, he said.