Goa iron ore e-auction lacks lustre

The Goa Mines and Geology Department’s sixth e-auction of iron ore got a poor response on Tuesday.

As against slightly over 1 million tonnes (mt) of iron ore, which was supposed to be e-auctioned in 56 lots, only 42 lots amounting to 4.4 lakh tonnes of ore were auctioned by the end of the day, confirmed official sources.

Poor prices of ore in the international market seem to be behind this lacklustre response, said an official of the Department seeking anonymity.

So far, the department had e-auctioned over 5.2 mt of iron ore and had fetched around ₹800 crore revenue, including ₹70 crore royalty through five e-auctions.

The department is e-auctioning the iron ore lying at different mines, jetties and plants as the iron ore prices in the international market had slightly improved.

The Goa government had identified around 16.2 mt of iron ore lying at different mines and jetties across the State since September 2012 after the Supreme Court banned the iron ore extraction and exports, but allowed the government to e-auction ore lying in various parts of the State.

The Supreme Court allowed the Goa government to e-auction the ore under the strict supervision of its monitoring committee.

The first e-auction was held in February last year as per the court guidelines and under the strict supervision of the Supreme Court’s monitoring committee.

The Supreme Court had also directed the Goa government to maintain separate accounts lease wise and to keep the sale proceeds from e-auctioning as fixed deposits in nationalised banks.

The Court had also told the government to pay wages of suspended workers and to pay the dues of Mormugao Port Trust, a south Goa-based major port, from the money collected from e-auction.

Though the Supreme Court in May last year relaxed its October 5, 2012 order of banning extraction and exports of ore in Goa by allowing State to conduct e-auction of ore and fresh extraction of ore under strict supervision and by putting a cap of 20 mt, Goa’s mining in the private sector is yet to resume.