Iron ore struggles to clamber out of the pits on restricted e-auction

Restrictions on participation in e-auctions and the ban on mining in Goa are weighing down the industry

Electronic auction finds its sanctity from right price discovery of a commodity through bidding by actual users and traders in an internet-enabled marketplace. To give one example, spot and forward e auction of coal continues to fetch attractive prices for Coal India Limited (CIL) as it encourages offer of bids by a maximum number of buyers and is also open to system reforms based on feedback from all stakeholders, including auction participants. 

During 2017-18, CIL sold 55.1 million tonnes (mt) of coal under spot e-auction fetching it a premium of 66 per cent over notified prices. In other coal auctions