| "We have told them to inform us about the date of signing the MoU by June 22," said Padmanabh Behera, steel and mines minister. |
| A high-level team of Posco led by its president, Chang Oh Kang was here last week to hold last-round discussions with the state government to resolve certain outstanding issues regarding its proposed 12 million tonne plant at Paradip for an estimated investment of Rs 52,000 crore. |
| Kang, who met chief minister Naveen Patnaik here on Friday, said the company will finalise the date of signing the MoU after getting back to Korea. |
| Before leaving Bhubaneswar yesterday, Kang had another round of discussion with the state chief secretary Subash Pani and other senior officials. |
| According to state mines minister, during these parleys certain agreements have been reached on the contentious iron ore export issue, which had earlier cast doubts on the future of the project. |
| Posco had been demanding that it be allowed to export a portion of its captive iron ore allotment for operational reasons which was being opposed by a section of the industry, government and various political parties. |
| Kang had said that though there will be no net export of iron ore, the company intended "to export some iron ore with high alumina content and import equal quantity of ore to improve the efficiency of the proposed plant". |
| During the discussion, the state government agreed to allow the company to export low quality ore up to 15 per cent of the captive allotment, which was permissible under the mineral guideline. |
| The company has to first import the high grade ore after which only it will be allowed to export equal quantity ore not vice versa, Behera asserted. |
| He said, this being a major FDI investment, a team from the Centre will soon visit the state to discuss on the project and creating requisite infrastructure for the same. The representatives from the Centre are also likely to attend the MoU signing ceremony, he added. |
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