JSW Steel bags two iron ore mines in Odisha

New Delhi, Feb 2 () JSW Steel has bagged two iron ore mines with a total reserves of 980 million tonnes in the auction in Odisha, a source said.

The company won Narayanposhi iron block with 190 MT reserve on Sunday, according to the industry source.

Others in the fray for this iron ore mine include Arcelormittal Mittal India Pvt Ltd, Vedanta, Tata Steel and JSPL.

On Friday, JSW Steel bagged the Nuagaon mine, which is the largest iron ore block in the auction in Odisha. It has a total estimated reserve of around 790 million tonne.

Both the mines are operational and its leases were expiring in March.

JSW Steel at present has a capacity of 18 million tonnes per annum (MTPA).

"Both wins will give Jsw Steel around 22 mtpa of captive iron ore for its plants. Also, it has won 6 category C- Mines in last year in Karnataka which are not fully operational providing another 7-8 mtpa of iron ore," according to an expert.

Securing iron ore linkages in Odisha was also important for JSW Steel as the company is planning a green field steel project of 12 MTPA in the state at an investment amount of over Rs 53,000 crore.

After the annulment of three notices inviting tender (NIT) in October 2019 for auction of iron ore and manganese blocks because of conflicts between participating bidders, the Odisha government released an NIT for 20 iron ore and manganese blocks on December 6, 2019.

While 15 of the 20 mines to be auctioned predominantly have iron ore, three have both iron ore and manganese, while the remaining are primarily manganese reserves.

The 18 mines containing iron ore reserves together hold 1,600 million tonne of which 33 per cent (five mines) are reserved for specified end-use (captive usage). These are old mines where leases are set to expire in March 2020. ABI BAL