TEAM HERALD
teamherald@herald-goa.com
PANJIM: The state government, in consultation with the Supreme Court appointed monitoring committee, has decided to e-auction about 4.88 million metric tonnes of iron ore lying idle at over 22 mining jetties in Goa, in the first phase. It has decided to conduct the e-auction in a phased manner.
To begin with, the material lying at Mormugao Port Trust (MPT) will be auctioned sometime in February. Nearly 1.98 million metric tones of ore, is ready for export at MPT.
“The committee has completed the assessment of the quality and quantity of the iron ore available for auctions. Of the total 15 million metric tones of iron ore being auctioned, the state and the committee has for now decided to auction about four million metric tonnes of ore lying at various river jetties at export parity prices,” highly placed sources confirmed.
Unless we e-auction and export the ore lying at jetties and port, we cannot go ahead with e-auction of ore at the leases, sources said questioning, “where will we dump the ore from leases after e-auction as the jetties and ports already have material loaded.”
As the Supreme Court has not put any restriction on the export of iron ore, the ore would be exported. The iron ore is estimated to be below 58 percent Fe. The modalities of the auction are likely to be finalised in a day or two while the auctions may start early February. The Directorate of Mines and Geology has already invited bidders to participate in the e-auction. The three member monitoring panel headed by Dr U V Singh on Wednesday left Goa after their five day visit during which they held meetings with mining stakeholders and visited mining sites and jetties.
