The first ever advance e-auction, held on March 8, witnessed bidding for close to half a million tonnes of iron ore by large steel mills

Advance e-auction for NMDC's iron ore has started off on a promising note with steel mills lapping up the entire lot of iron ore fines put on auction last month. With the new system coming into place, the public sector miner has increased production of iron ore at two of its mines in Bellary district, giving much needed relief to steel mills.

Steel mills still operating at 50% capacity due to shortage in supply of iron ore

Restoration of normalcy in supply of iron ore to steel mills in and around Karnataka might take more time if the Central Empowered Committee (CEC) accepts the request for reclassification of mines. Currently, CEC, following the Supreme Court's direction, is looking into the appeal of the main petitioner, Samaj Parivartan Samudaya (SPS), in the public interest litigation against illegal mining, for reclassification of mining leases based on the extent of several illegalities committed by them.

SC, in its order on Oct 5, 2012, has halted transportation and extraction of ore in the state

The Goa government will file an affidavit in the Supreme Court tomorrow, in which it will highlight the socio-economic impact of suspension of iron ore mining activities in the state since October last year. The social and economic impact on the people in the state if mining continues to halt in future, will be highlighted in the affidavit, Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar said.

Public sector iron ore miner NMDC Ltd has decided to reduce the price of lumps, iron ore with iron (Fe) content of 65 per cent by 5.9 per cent.

The price for lumps will accordingly come down by Rs. 320 a tonne from the existing Rs. 5,380 to Rs. 5,060 for the current month. Contrary to expectations, the NMDC board, which met at New Delhi on Wednesday to review the existing prices in line with the global scenario decided to reduce the prices of lumps to align the rates with landing cost of imported raw material.

The All Odisha Steel Federation (AOSF), an association of secondary and finished steel makers, has urged the ministerial panel on raw material supply to address issues pertaining to pricing and availability of minerals ahead of the next meeting of the committee on Thursday.

It said, though the recent state government notification to reserve half of the iron ore output for local units was beneficial for the industry, the mine owners were deliberately quoting higher rates.

In a bid to find alternate source of bauxite for the Lanjigarh alumina refinery of the Vedanta Alumininium Ltd (VAL), which is shut down for want of raw material since December 5, Odisha Mining Corporation (OMC) has decided to apply for mining lease of Karlapat bauxite deposits soon.

OMC had entered into a Mou with VAL for supply of bauxite from its Niyamgiri mines in Kalahandi district, but the plan was derailed by persistent protests by tribal community and green activists, finally leading to the cancellation of forest clearance for the mining activity by Union Ministry of Environment and Forest (MoEF) in August 2010.

Sharing the concerns of the Dongria Kondh tribe of Niyamgiri in Kalahandi district whose protests had put a halt to Vedanta’s bauxite mining plan two years ago, over hundreds of tribals, under the

In an attempt to fast-track coal production, the ministry of environment and forests (MoEF) has decided to allow companies with mining leases to expand production by 25% over the initially approved plan, without having to secure a fresh environment clearance (EC) from the ministry.

The move will help companies avoid the cumbersome process of getting EC approvals — which includes public hearings that may take up to three years — for their first expansion. For subsequent expansions, however, a new EC will be required.