The Orissa Minerals Development Company Limited (OMDC), a subsidiary of Rashtriya Ispat Nigam Limited (RINL), recently dispatched the first consignment of iron ore after 11 years of dormancy. However, SteelMint has learnt from reliable sources that the company is clearing old stocks lying at the pithead. The stocks that are being cleared are only from the Bhadrasahi iron ore and manganese ore mine. The inventory lying at the other two mines, Bagiaburu (iron ore) and Belkundi (iron ore and manganese ore), are “not much”, the source informed.
SteelMint also learnt that no fresh mining has started from any of the mines due to lack of environmental and forest clearances.
Last year, the Supreme Court had given an order allowing OMDC to resume mining operations at all the three above-mentioned mines, which are part of the six mines that it had received some years back from the state of Odisha. The SC order pertained to both clearing of old stocks and fresh mining but subject to the receiving of all statutory clearances. However, the company is yet to receive the same.
“We are clearing some old stocks. No fresh mining has started from any of the mines. The SC order was for clearing old stocks as well as fresh mining, but subject to clearances. However, we have not received the environmental and forest clearances yet. So we are stuck. We have sought environmental clearances (EC) and forest clearances (FC) for all three mines,” the source informed.
The total available stock to dispose of is not very high, at around 3 lakh tonnes and this volume has been lying there since around 2010-11. However, the EC limit is around 4 lakh tonnes per annum of production from the three mines. All the three mines together have reserves in excess of 110 million tonnes (mn t).
Earlier, a high-ranking OMDC official had said, with regard to Bagiaburu, the EC was at an advanced stage and that OMDC had moved a tender proposal to fix an MDO for the mine. Where the other two mines were concerned, OMDC had applied for forest clearance (FC), which was under processing. The FC has to be received first, post-which the EC can be attained. However, due to the pandemic, the process was delayed, the official had informed.
It was also learnt that its Dalki, Kolha Roida and Thakurani blocks are still under litigation.
Madhumita Mookerji
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