Two new iron ore blocks in the Indian state Odisha started production after being inaugurated on Feb 18. These two iron ore blocks — Jiling-Langlota and Guali – are reserved for state-owned Odisha Mining Corporation (OMC) were allocated in record time and made operational within 15 days of allocation, according a tweet by Minister of Mines, Pralhad Joshi.
The mines will produce 12mn mt of iron ore annually which will increase OMCs production capacity to 20mn mt. The Ministry of Mines has given necessary clearance in short period after the request was made by Odisha government, which will help ease the supply of iron ore in the domestic market.
Domestic steelmakers, especially secondary producers, faced severe supply shortage of iron ore in 2020 as only a few mines out of the 19 auctioned mines in Odisha could begin operations. The mines were auctioned in February-March 2020, and were expected to provide 65-70 mn mt iron ore to merchant markets in Eastern India. The tight supply lead to skyrocketing iron ore prices which hurt domestic steelmakers till January 2021.