Odisha to auction 40 mines: Minister Prafulla Mallick

Bhubaneswar: Odisha Steel & Mines minister Prafulla Mallick today announced that 40 mines will be auctioned soon out of which formalities have been completed for 36, while 4 are in process.

The announcement was made by the minister after a review meeting with senior officials of the Steel & Mines department.

"Licenses of 24 working mines will lapse in 2020 and we have begun the process of auctioning those mines. We have almost completed the auctioning formalities for 20 of the working mines and 16 other mines will also get auctioned" said Mallick.

The review revealed that Odisha government's revenue from mines in 2018-19 increased by 70.92% to Rs 10, 479 crore. Meanwhile, the annual production of OMC is currently at 16 million tonnes and plans are afoot to scale up production to 20 million tonnes, informed Mallick.