NEW DELHI: The fifth day of commercial coal mine auctions is expected to see Adani Enterprises Ltd (AEL), EMIL Mines and Minerals Resources Ltd, Jindal Steel and Power Ltd and National Aluminium Company Ltd vying for Radhikapur (East) mine in Odisha.
Also, Adani Power Resources Ltd, Welspun Steel Ltd, Aurobindo Reality and Infrastructure Private Ltd, JMS Mining Private Ltd, Adicorp Enterprises Private Ltd, India Coke and Power Private Ltd and JMS Mining Private Ltd are in fray today for the Urma Paharitola mine in Jharkhand.
A total of 15 coal mines have been auctioned under the commercial coal mine auctions that began on Monday, wherein the fuel is being awarded on a revenue-sharing basis. Earlier, blocks were awarded on a fixed payment per tonne basis.
As part of the two-stage auction process, a bidder has to bid for the percentage revenue share over the reserve price.There will be no restriction on the sale and utilization of coal from these mines.
The last day of the auction is expected to be 9 November, with two more coal mines left to be bid out. They are; Gondulpara in Jharkhand, and Gare Palma IV/7 in Chhattisgarh.
While a total of 38 coal mines were initially put-on auction by the coal ministry, a total of 19 mines are being bid out under the 11th tranche of auction under the Coal Mines (Special Provisions) Act, 2015. These mines are located across Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, Odisha and Maharashtra. There were 76 bids from 42 companies for 23 coal mines, with the remaining 15 mines not getting any bids.
India’s coal requirement is expected to go up to 1123 million tonnes (mt) by 2023 from the present levels of around 700 mt. The earlier plan was to mine 1.5 billion tonnes of coal by 2020.
On Thursday Fairmine Carbons Pvt Ltd and Chowgule and Company Pvt Ltd placed the winning bids for commercial mining of coal from Rajhara North (Central and Eastern) coal mine in Jharkhand and Sahapur (East) coal mine in Madhya Pradesh respectively.
The winning bids for the auctioned coal mines have been received from firms such as Adani Enterprises Ltd, Jindal Power Ltd, Vedanta Ltd, Hindalco Industries Ltd, JMS Mining Pvt Ltd, Aurobindo Realty and Infrastructure Pvt Ltd, Andhra Pradesh Mineral Development Corp. Ltd and EMIL Mines and Minerals Resources Ltd among others.
These bids come at a time when the global investor community is focusing on Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) investing and the window for fossil fuels is closing. While transitioning to a green economy, India has also called for a reset on climate debate on coal as a fuel.
