Odisha to auction 6 more mines by Oct end

Bhubaneswar: Odisha today decided to put six more mineral blocks under the hammer by the end of this October.

The six mines to be auctioned include four iron ore mines, one graphite mine and one limestone mine.

“Decision was taken to auction six more mines by the end of October. Out of the four are iron ore mines, one is a graphite mine and the other is a limestone mine. The graphite mines is located in Bolangir while the iron ore mines are located in the Keonjhar-Sundargarh belt,” informed Chief Secretary A P Padhi to reporters after a high-level meeting of the State Level Facilitation Committee today.

Sources privy to the meeting said that the Chief Secretary directed officials of various departments to expedite the process for auctioning of mines.

Padhy directed officials to facilitate expeditious extraction of minerals from three iron ore mines, one limestone mine and one manganese mine auctioned earlier.

The Chief Secretary discussed issues of forest and environment clearances for these mines with officials of the concerned departments present at the meeting.

Padhy said it is the responsibility of the State government to ensure that mining leaseholders do not face problems in making these mines operational by way of clearances etc.