Ministry of Steel (govt. of India) has sought clarification on ‘end use’ for the purpose of allocation of iron ore mine blocks via auction route mentioned in Mineral Auction Rules (2015).
Earlier only ‘end users’ i.e. Integrated steel plants could participate in the iron ore mine block auctions but considering the sense of disadvantage to smaller sponge plants and other steel plants, Steel Ministry had taken up the matter to Ministry of Mines.
Ministry of Mines has replaced ‘end users ’ term with a more neutral term ‘production of iron & steel’. According to this sponge iron manufacturers and pellet makers can also bid for iron ore mine blocks in the auction process.
This will prove beneficial to sponge iron plants and other steel plants who owing to smaller size were not falling in the category of ‘integrated steel plants’ and earlier were not eligible to participate in iron ore mine block auctions.
The notification also states that list given in Schedule -II of the Mineral Auction Rules (2015) is only indicative in nature and is not restrictive to integrated steel plants in case of iron ore. State governments may reserve mines for any end use like sponge iron, iron pellet etc also.
Link to the notification issued recently by Ministry of Steel
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