Bhubaneswar: The state government has decided to annul a previous bidding process and go for fresh auctioning of 20 iron ore and manganese mines, leases of which are scheduled to expire by the end of March 2020, officials said.
The department of Steel and Mines has directed the director of mines in a letter Monday that it would initiate a fresh process for the auction of the 20 working mineral blocks.
The government has cancelled the auction of 29 iron and manganese mineral blocks put in three phases in October.
Speaking to reporters here Tuesday, mines director Deepak Mohanty said, “It was found that apart from subsidiary companies, the holding companies had also applied for the bidding in gross violation of the Mining Tender Act. Taking note of this unfair bidding, the government felt that a fair auction process couldn’t be ensured as the price and premium discovery couldn’t be determined.”
Therefore, he said, the government has decided to cancel the auction notices and issue a fresh notification by incorporating new conditions in the tender document.
Mohanty clarified that now a bidder can submit only one bid for a particular mineral block. In case a bidder submits more than one bid for a particular block, either directly or indirectly through its affiliates, all such bids submitted by the bidder and its affiliates will be summarily rejected.
The government will issue a fresh notification December 6 for auction of 20 working mines while the tender process will be completed by March 31 next year, he pointed out. The Directorate of Mines had received bids from 177 companies for the auction of 20 mining blocks.
The auction process for another nine mineral blocks notified under another annulled NIT dated October 18, 2019 will be scheduled subsequently, sources said.
Among the 20 mining blocks was the massive 767.284 ha Nuagaon deposit with reserves of 792.93 million tonne, larger than all other iron ore deposits on offer.
Sources said the state government has received 15 technical bids for the Nuagaon block of which six were from companies or subsidiaries of a particular steel major, sources further said.
The government has also decided to return the bank guarantees furnished by the bidders in response to the annulled NITs.
The reservation of mineral blocks for end use, including the definition of end use and Reserve Prices as approved earlier, shall be retained as such in this fresh auction, he said. The letter of intent will be provided to the successful bidder between February 10 and 29.
