Bhubaneswar: Odisha government owned miner – OMC has set a target to produce 8.75 MnT of iron ore and 1.25 MnT of chrome ore in the current financial year. In the last financial year i.e. FY16 OMC had produced 6.02 MnT of iron ore.
This was discussed at an annual review meeting by the Odisha government Chaired by the Chief secretary Mr. A.P. Padhy and was attended by the Steel & Mines secretary Mr. R.K. Sharma, Director of mines Mr. Deepak Mohanty and OMC MD Mr. Viniel Krishna.
The miner has set a target to produce 10 MnT of iron ore by FY18. To achieve this target OMC has been asked to enhance production at its existing mines and speed up the clearance process to operationalise new mines under its possession. It may be noted that due to lack of expertise, manpower, equipment and statutory clearances only 4 iron ore blocks out of 33 iron ore blocks are operating. Similarly, only 2 Chrome mines are in operation.
The 4 operating iron ore mines of OMC are Kurmitar, Gandhamardan-B, Roida and Daitari. The two Chromite mines are SouthKaliapani and Sukrungi (both in Sukinda block of Jajpur district).
According to a government source “to enhance its output OMC is planning to partner with private agencies having expertise in Ore production to augment its output in order to achieve its output target.”
Odisha iron ore production hikes sharply by 61% in beginning of FY17
Iron ore production in Odisha has increased sharply in first two months of FY17. In the period Apr’16-May’16, Odisha produced 17.07 MnT iron ore against 10.58 MnT in the same period last fiscal. Rising production from major Odisha miners namely Rungta Mines, Serajuddin Mines, KJS Ahluwalia, Indrani Patnaik etc has resulted in increased production.
Odisha govt. is expecting state’s iron ore production to touch 100 MnT in FY17.
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