BENGALURU | Jul 12, 2017: At a meeting held under the aegis of chief minister Siddaramaiah, the mines department has supposedly said the steel industry is in a state of flux over the increasing demand for iron ore but no available production.

At a brief meeting on the issue of providing a long term resolution for iron ore mining, Siddaramaiah has asked the mines department to prepare a plan of action (POA) for the purpose resolving the issues of the industry.

Later, speaking to media, mines minister Vinay Kulkarni admitted that there is a huge gap in the demand and supply of iron ore for the steel industry and said the government is trying to find a viable option to circle around the cap on production of iron ore which is placed by the supreme court appointed central empowered committee (CEC).

"At present we are looking at a demand of no less than 54 mmt by 2020. Now, for this purpose, we need to get reprieve from the CEC which has placed a cap of 30 mmt per year," he said.

Kulkarni said after 2011 disaster, there has been a huge drop in the producion of iron ore that has created a lot of unfulfilled orders to the steel industries.

"Now, a company like Jindal steel works alone requires 20 to 22 mmt. The other smaller sponge iron industries will require more than the existing 8 mmt of ore. This year we will be reaching the cap of 30 mmt in the coming months. So now we have placed the demand to CEC for allowing the increase in production to 40 mmt," he said.

C category mines fail to invoke much interest

The fallout of excessive and uncontrolled mining in the CEC denoted 'C' category mines has caused a lot of harm for the state exchequer. With as many as 56 'C' category mines having to be auctioned, till date only seven of them have seen people picking up with bids. According to Kulkarni, the government in the first phase put up 14 blocks of c category mines for auction.

"Of these we saw seven of them being picked up. Now, we are pushing another 16 blocks for auction in the next month," he said.

(Source: http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/)