India: Entire Quantity Booked in OMC's Koira Sub-grade Iron Ore Fines Auction

SteelMint has learned from the market sources that Odisha’s state-owned miner- Odisha Mining Corporation (OMC) had scheduled an auction for sub-grade iron ore (Fe 56%) fines yesterday (i.e. on 18th Jul'19).

Total quantity put under the auction was 747,000 MT fines (Fe 58%) and out of this 222,000 MT was booked in the auction. The material offered was from Gandhamardan and Koira mines. Traders were restricted to take part in this auction.

As per sources, sub-grade fines lot offered from Koira received a good response and entire quantity offered of 147,000 MT was sold. Bids moved up by upto INR 150/MT over the set base price of INR 750/MT (including Royalty).

However, material from Gandhamardhan mines received flat bids at the base price of INR 750/MT and around 75,000 MT iron ore fines were booked out of offered quantity of 600,000 MT.

State-owned miner - Odisha Mining Corporation (OMC) is all set with iron ore production ramp-up plans for coming years to make up for expected supply disruption after March 2020 following lease expiry. OMC is planning to achieve 20 MnT iron ore output by FY21.

EC limit at Daitari mines is proposed to be increased to 6 MnT p.a. from current EC of 3 MnT pa. On similar lines, EC limit at OMC's Kurmitar mines is proposed to be increased from current 2.4 MnT p.a to 6 MnT p.a.