PANJIM: The entire 15 million metric tons of extracted iron ore lying at jetties, leases, beneficiation plants and port will be e-auctioned by October 21, 2014 as the Supreme Court directives, Directorate of Mines and Geology announced Tuesday.
Director Prasanna Acharya said the Mines Department is bound to e-auction the entire extracted ore within six months following the Supreme Court order on April 21. The monitoring committee has to submit its report to the Apex Court by October 21, 2014 based on the e-auction, he said.
Meanwhile, with fall in the iron ore prices in the international market, the third phase of e-auction, wherein total 5.4 lakh metric tons of ore was offered for sale, received lukewarm response with the State managing to earn additional hardly Rs 3 crore from the fixed base price.
Total 12 firms had put in bids that were invited through Metal Scrap Trade Corporation (MSTC) under supervision of Supreme Court-appointed monitoring committee.
Acharya said that in the previous auction, of the total 5.4 lakh metric tons, 5.1 lakh metric tons of ore was sold on May 12 and Government received total bid worth Rs 53 crore, which is higher compared to the set up bid price – Rs 50 crore.
“There was an average response to the e-auction process due to fall in the iron ore prices in the international market. We could hardly get additional Rs 3 crore compared to the set up bid price,” Acharya informed.
The sluggish demand from the main buyer – China, and the increase in the export from countries such as Brazil and Australia is yet another reason.
The government benefited tremendously from the first two e-auctions by raking in revenue of around Rs 268 crore by selling 1.6 million metric tons of ore. In the first e-auction, conducted on February 17, government received total bids worth Rs 93.81 crore, which is almost 38 per cent more from the set up bid price – Rs 68.14 crore. In the second phase of e-auction, held on March 5, the ore was sold at a bid price of Rs 88 crore as against the set bid price of Rs 58 crore.
