the recently held elections in Karnataka paved the way for several mine owners to the state assembly. Some of them who belong to Bellary district have even got key ministerial berths such as the revenue ministry and the ministry of tourism and infrastructure development.

Government is believed to have decided to impose 15% export duty on iron ore, used for making steel, which has seen a 50% increase in prices since January, thereby fuelling inflation. The decision was taken at the meeting of the Committee of Secretaries (CoS) on May 30, a highly placed source said. The CoS has also decided to roll back export duty on steel, barring primary and semi-finished products, in return for the Rs 4,000 per tonne reduction in prices announced by them early last month.

China's steelmakers are likely to reach a deal with Australian iron ore miners this month in price talks long deadlocked over the miners' demand for a freight premium, a senior Chinese steel official says. Zhang Xiaogang, chairman of the China Iron and Steel Association, also indicated a softer stance toward the miners' demand for the freight-linked sweetener, as the world's largest steel industry faces a June 30 deadline when the Australians will become free to sell more ore into the pricier spot market.

THE Union government is "looking into" the issue of banning iron ore exports as demanded by the steel makers, Steel Secretary R S Pandey said today. "The issue was being looked into by the government," Pandey told reporters on the sidelines of a function here.

The Orissa government is all set to recommend the Khandadhar iron ore mines to South Korean steel major Posco. Its recommendation letter is likely to be dispatched some time in the first week of next month as all formalities related to the hand-over have been carried out. There were as many 237 applicants for the mines. The state government on December 26, 2006, recommended Posco India to the Centre for a licence to carry out prospecting over 6204.352 hectares of the Khandadhar mines in Sundergarh district. The Centre initially rejected the state government's recommendation of Posco.

Hospet, a small town around 350 km from Bangalore, is perennially cloaked in a red dust that emanates from the scores of pit iron ore mines that dot the area. According to numerous watchdog groups, such as

India's largest iron ore producer and exporter, NMDC Ltd, may review exports to Japanese steel mills and South Korea's Posco in a bid to increase availability in the domestic market and restore the anomaly in net realisations from exports and domestic prices. Currently, domestic prices are higher than export realisations by 97-231 per cent, depending on the grades and mines.