After a two-year ban, Goa to restart e-auction of iron ore

Panaji: Goa Mines and Geology Department has put 19 lakh metric tonne of iron ore on the block through e-auctioning, to be held on November 6 and 7.

In its notification uploaded on its website today, the department has announced two phase e-auctioning on November 6 and 7, through which 10 lakh and 9 lakh metric tonne of iron ore would be auctioned respectively.

The department has announced a detailed schedule of the iron ore e-auctioning which would be monitored by a Supreme Court appointed committee.

While lifting its two-year long ban on export of iron ore from Goa, the Supreme Court had allowed e-auctioning of ironore which was extracted during the 2007-2012 period.

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The state has a total of 15 million metric tonne of iron ore lying at various jetties, stacking yards, mining leases and the Mormugao Port Trust.

During the Goa government’s earlier four e-auctioning events, five million metric tonne of iron ore were already sold to various buyers.

The Supreme Court appointed committee which is closely monitoring the e-auctioning had said that it was satisfied with the action of the Goa government. “We are quite satisfied with the process adopted by the Goa government to electronically auction the ore,” committee member U V Singh said.

The committee which recently visited Goa had conceded that the e-auctioning process is moving at a slow pace due to inappropriate prices of iron ore in the international market.

“There are several factors responsible for the slow pace of e-auctioning. The state witnessed rainy seasons since April till date. Also iron ore prices in the international market are low,” Singh said.

He had said that the Goa government is the owner of the iron ore and hence it must rationalise the sale in such a way that it gets a better price.

The slowdown in China’s economy, along with a reduction in steel production in that country had proved detrimental to iron ore export, Singh added.

He stated that the percentage of Goa iron ore which is consumed domestically is very marginal. “Very little iron ore is consumed in the domestic market. I know that there is only one buyer in Karnataka which takes the ore, but for that too, there are constraints in transporting the ore. Because of this, the buyer purchases the ore from Karnataka itself,” he had said.

PTI