PANAJI: The fourth and final mining block of the current set of iron ore mines auctions was bagged by Goa-based firm Sociedade de Fomento Industrial (Fomento) after the firm bid the highest among competing firms with a promise to share 88.40% of revenue with the Goa government.
The mining auctions, which began on December 14, led to all four mining blocks that were up for bidding bagged by players who were operational in Goa and owners of leases prior to the Supreme Court striking the contracts down with effect from November 2007.
Four blocks were up for auctions -- three in North Goa, with each leased by Rajaram Bandekar, Chowgule & Co and Sesa Mining Corporation -- and one in South Goa, leased previously by N S Narvekar. The estimated worth of the iron that could be mined was pegged at ₹43,000 crore were auctioned by the Goa government.
Participating companies had to quote in percentage terms the amount of average sale price as fixed by the Indian Bureau of Mines they were willing to share with the government.
While the first block (Bicholim) was bagged by Vedanta, which quoted 63.55% to retake a set of mines they were operating prior to the shutdown, the second and third blocks (Sirgao-Mayem and Monte de Sirgao) received the highest bids with block 2 bagged by Salgaocar Shipping with a bid of 99.25% and NS Bandekar retaining its mines at Monte de Sirgao with a bid 111.28%.
{{/usCountry}}While the first block (Bicholim) was bagged by Vedanta, which quoted 63.55% to retake a set of mines they were operating prior to the shutdown, the second and third blocks (Sirgao-Mayem and Monte de Sirgao) received the highest bids with block 2 bagged by Salgaocar Shipping with a bid of 99.25% and NS Bandekar retaining its mines at Monte de Sirgao with a bid 111.28%.
{{/usCountry}}Perusal of official documents revealed that three of the four mining blocks went to the same companies operating the leases prior to the shutdown with Vedanta, NS Bandekar and Fomento all retaining their leases so far with the only change being in the Sirgao-Mayem block, which changed hands from Chowgule and Co to Salgaocar Shipping.
The state government had received 28 bids by 11 companies for the four mining blocks that are going under the hammer in the current lot.
“A new era has begun for the mining sector in Goa. The long-pending issue of mining in Goa has come to a practical end,” Goa chief minister Pramod Sawant said when the winner of the first block was announced.
Despite the auctions, mining isn’t expected to immediately resume with the tender document specifying that a successful bidder will have to obtain forest clearances, wildlife clearances, environmental clearances afresh among a list of more than 15 clearances that will be required if mining is to resume.
Environment activists, the Goa Foundation, red-flagged what they said was “the opaque manner in which the procedures for the restart of mining are taking place.”
“No mining should restart without total and complete transparency… All bidders must fulfil the fit and proper person test. Public needs to know whether the bidders have been involved in illegal mining in the past and whether they are to be entrusted with public resources, which in the present instance belong to the citizens of the state,” the Goa Foundation said.
“The Goa Foundation shall be closely monitoring all the actions of the state and central government and shall resist through all means at its disposal, any by-pass or circumvention in the right approach or law,” the NGO previously said in a letter to Union mines minister Pralhad Joshi.