India: CEC submits Report on Odisha Mining

Recently, CEC submits report on Odisha Iron ore mining case. The report doesn’t recommend mining embargo but highlighted severe irregularities.

1. Mining lease of Essel Mining’s Jilling & Kasia mines should not be renewed owing to violations
2. Concerns have raised over JSPL & Sarda Mines’ arrangement. The state government has asked to take a call on this along with other cases of Rule 37 violation
3. 213 MnT Iron ore and 2.4 MnT Manganese ore are found to be extracted without EC from 2000-2011 onwards
4. On this illegal extraction, the government has recommended over 30% penalty on notional value or IBM price per tonne Total penalty of INR 170.91 billion for Iron ore and INR 4.85 billion for Manganese ore has recommended (OMC: INR 21.77 billion; Sarda: INR 19.39 billion; Tata Steel: 6.14 billion)
5. 20 leases were operating without EC, which include mines of Essel, Tata, OMC & others. On these mines, 70% of IBM value is recommended as penalty
6. INR 5 crore per acre of penalty is recommended for excessive mining

As the report doesn’t recommend for mining ban, so no recurring impact will be there. However, it will be a major one time hit for players like Tata Steel & other merchant miners.