In a recent order, Principal Secretary, Steel and Mines, Odisha has suggested ex-miners be allowed additional time to liquidate the balance of mineral ores lying in the leasehold area, extracted prior to the expiry of the lease on 31st Mar 2020.
What is the case:
- Odisha auctioned 19 iron ore mines before 31 March 2020 just as Covid19 was beginning to spread.
- Under the Mineral Concession Rules 2016 the former lessee was given 7 months (from Mar’20) to liquidate his inventories mined before 31st Mar’20.
- The stocks with these miners as on 31st Mar’20 totalled around 40 mnt and closing stock on 31st Oct’20 stood at around 17 mn t
- Half a dozen of them who were left with huge stocks within the leashold– including KJS Ahluwalia, Serajuddin and RP Sao – had filed a petition in the Odisha High Court seeking extension invoking Force majeure on account of COVID related restriction imposed by Centre and affected districts.
- The High Court had directed the state to hear these petitions invoking force majeure.
- Some others had made claims over the relatively smaller stocks which was confiscated and sold by the state-owned mining company, OMC.
Impact
- In his letter dated 6 May 2021 the Principal Secretary, while allowing them to liquidate stocks under Rule 12(1)(hh) does not specify how much time may be given.
- The state government is to take a final call on this, said Government sources
- Serajuddin is holding an inventory of over 8 mnt (of largely high grade).
- However, with new operators well settled now, SteelMint expects a more moderate 5-6 mnt iron ore being available for exports from these erstwhile miners.
- No impact on chrome and manganese ore as most of the auctioned mines have already liquidated their inventories
Status of iron ore inventories at Odisha auctioned mining leases
Inventory in t
Source: SteelMint
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