Commercial mining: Maiden coal auctions draw good response

Boosting the prospects of a sharp acceleration in India’s coal production and near elimination of the need for thermal coal imports in the medium term, the maiden auction under the commercial coal mining policy saw aggressive bidding by domestic and home grown firms on Monday. While five commercial coal blocks went under the hammer, the winning bidders offered to pay handsome amounts to the respective state governments as revenue share, up to 31% in two cases.

The largest mine offered — Radhikapur West in Odisha — was won by Vedanta, which agreed to a revenue share of 21%, while Aditya Birla Group’s Hindalco Industries bagged the Chakla blocks in Jharkhand, the second largest among the auctioned block by quoting a 14.25% revenue share.