Odisha garners INR6,693.62 cr mineral royalty for bauxite and other ores

Government of Odisha, the mineral-rich state on India's east coast, has collected INR6,693.62 crore royalty as on March 27, 2017, since the amended Mines and Minerals-Development & Regulation (MMDR) Act was promulgated on January 12, 2015. The revenue, as per state mining ministry data, has accrued from 96 mines engaged in bauxite mining and extraction of other mineral ores.

The enactment of the amended MMDR Act has enabled Odisha to extend the mining lease validity of more than 60 mines. This has helped in boosting the production and despatch of minerals from the mining sites to a considerable extent during the period under consideration.

The state government has executed mining lease (ML) deeds with 16 lessees before the January 11, 2017 deadline stipulated for these 60 plus mines. Some of the entities owning these mines include Odisha Mining Corporation (OMC), Neelachal Ispat Nigam Ltd (NINL), Shree Metaliks Ltd, Pradhan Industries, Bajrang Lal Gupta, Manikeswari Minerals, Prakash Industries Ltd, Koustuv Mining & Smelting Ltd, Sanjukta Gems, Bijay Kumar Bansal, K C Pradhan, National Enterprises, Rudrasen Sindhu and Om Prakash Jain.

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Orissa is endowed with huge reserves of metallurgical grade bauxite with low content of reactive silica. The state accounts for 60 per cent of India’s estimated bauxite reserves of 593 million tonnes (MT) and is also the largest bauxite producer in the country. It accounted for 35.24 per cent, or 7.64 MT, of India’s 21.67 MT production in FY2013-14, and in 2015-16, its annual bauxite production stood at 10.839542 MT.

With co-ordinated planning among explorers, producers, ambitious industrial houses and execution by the visionary state government the production in the state will rise manifold in coming years.