Bhubaneswar:
Miners expect rise in iron ore production this year as more mines will be opened up after the submission of the Shah Commission report. However, miners have opposed the hike in royalty rates.
“This year the state’s iron ore production will gone up as I expect more mines would be opened up after the submission of the Shah commission report. We also expect the report will a positive for the mining industry†said Ashok Kumar Gupta, President Sarda mines.
The Sarda Mines, which has (Run of mine) ROM contract with Jindal Steel and Power (JSPL), has set a target to produce 12 million tonnes of iron ore in the current financial year which was 7.8 million tonnes in last financial year i.e.2012-13. Run of mine contract means the entire production is delivered to the partner company irrespective of the grade.
Odisha has produced around 50 million tonnes of iron ore in the last financial year and has capped this year’s production to 57 million tonnes.
On the proposal for increasing royalty collected on iron ore to 15%, he said that this is not good for the mining industry. At one hand the government is planning to increase royalty from 10% to 12% and then the new MMDR bill has provisions of spending additional 112.5% (of royalty) on CSR, which will make mining unviable.
Reported by Tapan Moharana
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