TEAM HERALD
teamherald@herald-goa.com
PANJIM: Directorate of Mines and Geology has allowed prospective bidders to inspect and sample the stacked ore which they have bid for in the e-auction scheduled for February 17.
In a notification issued, Directorate of Mines Prasanna Acharya has said that the inspection and sampling of ore shall be permitted upon request from registered bidders. DMG would also be intimating the mine owners concerned, to whom the ore belongs to allow inspection and sampling of the ore.
The inspection would be undertaken from February 7 to 12. At least 5,69,496 lakh metric tonnes of the 15 million metric tonnes would be auctioned on February 17, in the first phase. The last date for applying for the auction is Feb 12.
The bidders had expressed concern over the quality of the ore. The bidders wanted DMG to ascertain the quality of the ore before going ahead with the e-auction. “In Karnataka, the ore of various grades has caused problem to the buyer and the same disaster would happen in case of Goa. A stack of ore displaying a 52 or 60 Fe content may not have the same quality in totality. Since Goa has a stack of 10,000 metric tons ore, it becomes more important to ascertain its quality,” a bidder said.
According to information, Goan ore has not just the Fe (iron) content but also presence of SiO2 (Silica) and Al2O3 along with the phosphorus and Sulphur content, which has a bearing on the overall grade of the ore.
