DoM (Department of Mines) Jharkhand, has stopped iron ore dispatches from Tata Steel Noamundi mines looking at its non-conformity in MMDR Act.
Tata Steel has stated that Jharkhand govt, further stipulating certain terms and conditions to operate its Noamundi mine, has stopped issuing dispatch notes to move iron ore from the mine. As per the company, state govt’s conditions are not in conformity with the MMDR Act provisions. However, it is unsure if the mines have any operational non-compliances, which may have led the state govt. to take their stand against the MMDR Act.
The steelmaker has decided to take a legal recourse on the matter.
The MMDR Act enables all captive mines to have a lease extension till 2030. Tata Steel’s Odisha mines were re-started owing to these provisions in the MMDR Act.
Stoppage of dispatches to severely impact Tata Steel’s Jamshedpur Steel Plant
Noamundi mines is crucial to Tata Steel as it supplies raw material to its Jamshedpur steel plant of capacity 9.8 MnT. An official from Tata Steel shared, “We have sufficient iron ore inventory till Sept’15, so the steel plant will run smoothly till then.” If the issue of iron ore dispatches is not resolved by Sept’15, the company might again turn to imports.
Tata Steel-Noamundi mines have production capacity of 10 MnT pa and produced 5.5 MnT iron ore in FY15. Mines were closed from Sep’14 to Dec’14 on renewal of lease issues. Owing to closure of its mines Tata Steel had to turn to imports. The steel giant imported around 3.4 MnT iron ore last fiscal. Later, mines resumed operations in Jan’15
Link to the Govt. Order over iron ore dispatches of Tata Steel-Noamundi mines
Leave a Reply