Jharkhand to assess Sail's Chiria iron ore needs

The dispute over the right to mine iron ore from Chiria mines by Steel Authority of India Limited (SAIL) was likely to intensify if the Jharkhand government insisted on making its own preliminary assessment using the state's mines department for assessment of SAIL's iron ore requirement from Chiria.

Jharkhand chief secretary P P Sharma recently wrote to the Union mines ministry suggesting that the steel major after meeting its present and future requirement should hand over the balance iron ore reserve to the state for allocation to other prospective investors in the interest of the country.

Union steel ministry had earlier written to the Prime Minister's Office that SAIL could not share any iron ore from Chiria with any other entity as the entire volume of reserves in the Chiria mines were required for its present and future expansion plans.

However, Union steel minister Ram Vilas Paswan had indicated his willingness to split the Chiria reserves.

Now, the Jharkhand government was insisting on making its own 'realistic' assessment on SAIL's present and future demand of iron ore from Chiria.

According to one Jharkhand mines department assessment data, SAIL's total iron ore for present and future requirement including expansion plans could not be more than 750 million ton per annum over a period of 30 years while the total reserve in the Chiria mines was estimated to be about 2.44 billion ton according to SAIL's own record.

However, sources in SAIL here refused to pay any importance to remarks or assessment of the state's mines department.

The sources said SAIL's requirement was at least of 5,700MT of iron ore for the next 50 years.

The ore was needed operate its present and future plants and all the reserves at Chiria were not enough to meet SAIL's requirement, sources claimed.

Considering this, SAIL had applied for prospecting licence for the Ghatkuri mines to the state government and aimed to develop this new mine.