Karnataka will seek the approval of the nation’s top court in two weeks to auction some iron ore mines that were closed in 2011 and seized last year for environmental violations.
The process to sell 15 of 51 closed mines will start after the Supreme Court clears the move, Tushar Giri Nath, the province’s mines secretary, said in a phone interview.
The mines will be auctioned to steelmakers for their captive use and may benefit producers including JSW Steel Ltd., which owns the biggest steel plant in the region.
JSW Steel resorted to bulk imports of the commodity this year to meet its needs as local supplies dwindled. JSW Steel, India’s third-largest producer of the alloy, will import as much as 6 million metric tons, or about a quarter of its needs, in the year ending 31 March from overseas, compared with a few thousand tons last year, Group chief financial officer Seshagiri Rao said in an interview last month. The company has a 10 million metric ton-a-year factory in Karnataka.
The process to auction the mines has been prepared by Standard & Poor’s Indian unit CRISIL Ltd., Nath said. The company will also help the state in evaluating bids, he said.
Source: Livemint