In a major relief, Supreme Court allowed MESCO to sell 2.35 MnT iron ore inventory lying at mines head through Odisha Mining Corporation Limited (OMC).under the supervision of an authority appointed by the State Government, and the sale proceeds mandatorily being deposited with the Special Purpose Vehicle (OMBADC). CEC’s recommendation stated OMC may be paid a fee of 0.5% of the sale value, excluding the statutory payments for undertaking the sale of iron ore Mesco mines is closed since Dec’17.
Mesco (Mid-east integrated Steels Ltd.) has been allowed to sell 23,51,027.83 MT of iron ore of different grades and sizes which has been extracted, processed and stacked at the dispatch site within the leasehold area. The lessee will make grade wise stacks of minerals in lots of 4000 MT, and or its multiples following the IBM approved technical formula for conversion of volume to weight applicable to each type of ore like lumps, fines and ROM.
Earlier, Mideast appears to have extracted mineral over and above what was permissible. Hence, as per the Honourable Court’s judgment dated 02.08.2017 in the lead matter, Mideast was liable to Compensate the State of Odisha for the illegal extraction. Upon its failure to deposit the claimed compensation, Mideast’s mining operations in Roida-I iron ore mines were stopped with effect from 01.01.2018.
Supreme Court Allows Sarda Mines to Resume Iron Ore Production after payment of dues:
Supreme Court also allowed Sarda mines to resume iron ore production on payment of their dues in one month. Company has an EC limit of 4 MnT.
Sarda mines Pvt Ltd holds a lease Thakurani (Block B) iron ore mines at Keonjhar , Odisha. The operations at mine is closed since 31st Mar’14. SMPL highlighted the loss of 5 and half years over the mines closure since 2014 and also the hardly half year of its lease period is left. The miner has expressed willingness to pay the dues as assessed by CEC to resume operations. However, the miner is allowed to do so on following conditions:
(i) SMPL is granted one month’s time to deposit the dues as assessed by CEC in its report dated 08.05.2019.
(ii) In addition, SMPL shall file an undertaking to comply with all the rules, regulations and other mandatory provisions for carrying out mining operations.
(iii) After complying with directions (i) and (ii) above, SMPL can resume its mining operations in the leased area for the remainder of its lease period.
The Central Environment Committee (CEC) report dated 8th May’15 stated that “M/s SMPL during the period 2001-02 to 2010-11 has produced 135,34,703 tonnes of excess quantity/illegal production of iron ore in violation of the Environmental Clearance granted by MoEF&CC. Accordingly, M/s SMPL is liable to pay Rs. 933,60,79,689 (Rupees nine hundred thirty three crores sixty lakhs seventy nine thousand six hundred and eighty nine only) in terms of the Judgment dated 02.08.2017 of this Hon’ble Court.”
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