By Bizodisha Bureau, Bhubaneswar, May 20, 2017 : Bhushan Power & Steel (BPSL) emerged successful in the intense bidding for the Netrabandha Pahar iron ore block in Odisha on Saturday. BPSL won the block with a quote to share 87.15% of the revenue from mining operations with the state government.

The Netrabandha Pahar iron ore block is located in Sundargarh’s Koira sector with geological reserves of 77.25 million tonnes of which 61.9 million tonnes are high grade deposits spread over 139 hectares with forest land making up 112 hectares.

BPSL is the second Bhushan Group firm to have bagged an iron ore block through auctions in the state. Earlier,Bhushan Steel Ltd won the Kalamang iron ore block reserved for an integrated steel plant on Friday.

Sixteen 6 bidders were in the fray initially for the Netrabandha Pahar block meant for merchant mining. The companies in the fray were Serajuddin and Company, Shri Bajrang Power and Ispat Ltd, NMDC, MSPL Ltd, Maithan Ispat Ltd, Feegrade & Company Pvt Ltd, JSPL, Bhushan Power & Steel Ltd, JSW Steel Ltd, Essel Mining & Industries Ltd, Vedanta Ltd, Rashtriya Ispat Nigam Ltd (RINL), Shri Jagannath Steels & Power Ltd, Orissa Metaliks Pvt Ltd and Tata Metaliks Ltd. Later, the list narrowed to seven companies for the financial bids.

Odisha was also the first state to auction an iron ore block — the Ghoraburhani-Sagasahi block bagged by Essar Steel. Essar Steel has proposed a production capacity of 7.16 million tonne per annum (mtpa) run of the mine product from the iron ore block. As part of the project, the steel company is also setting up a crushing & screening plant and a beneficiation plant with a capacity of 6.7 mtpa over an area of 139.16 hectares (ha) at Ghoraburhani, Sagasahi and Kalmang villages situated in Sundargarh district.