KOLKATA (miningweekly.com) – The government of the eastern Indian province of Odisha will put up six iron-ore blocks for auction by the end of October.

The Mineral Exploration Corporation has completed the two advanced exploration stages, with a final report expected to be handed to the government. Government officials said this week that the process of finalising the auction process would be completed by the end of October, following which bids papers would be issued.

The federal Ministry of Mines earlier this year made it mandatory for local government to complete G2 and G3 level of exploration before putting up noncoal mineral blocks for auction. The Odisha government was targeting completion of exploration and inviting bids for a total of 14 mineral blocks, including the six iron-ore blocks, within the current financial year, the officials added.

According to the officials, at a review meeting on the forthcoming auction, the Odisha government decided that the onus for the timely issue of all mandatory approvals to ensure that the blocks were operationalised within a fixed timeframe lay with the local government.

However, a section of government and the local mining industry have expressed doubts over responses at the forthcoming auctions, considering that several steel companies were suffering from stressed balance sheets and a few of them even referred for bankruptcy before the National Company Law Tribunal.

They pointed out the case of Bhushan Steel, which bagged an iron-ore block at the auctions last year, but which a few months ago had been referred for bankruptcy by the Reserve Bank of India.

With the process of framing a New National Mineral Policy also in the works, prospective investors might prefer to await its formal unveiling before participating in the auctions, officials said.

The new policy is expected to usher in a more liberal mineral allocation regime, including a lower net worth threshold for bidders and even a lower minimum threshold for the number of bidders necessary for an auction to be valid.