The first-ever auction of mineral resources saw GMR Group and Anil Ambani's Reliance Cement pick up two coal blocks, piping other majors. The auction began on Saturday with the Sial Ghogri in Madhya Pradesh and Talabira I in Odisha coming under the gavel on Saturday.
The first coal block – Madhya Pradesh's Sial Ghogri mine -- was claimed by the highest bidder, Reliance Cement, at ₹1,402 per tonne.
GMR Chhatisgarh Energy, a subsidiary of the GMR Group won the Talabira I block, with the lowest bidder winning the block. GMR's 478 per tonne bid was declared the winning bid.
Sial Ghogri
"Bidding for Sial Ghogri has just finished and the winning bid is for ₹1,402 per tonne. The winning bidder will have to pay that amount for extracting each tonne of coal to the Madhya Pradesh State Government," Power, Coal and New and Renewable Energy Minister, Piyush Goyal said.
Sial Ghogri is rated at 5.61 million tonnes of reserves.
The mine has an annual peak rated capacity of 0.3 million tonnes. The bid offers a premium of ₹37.56 crore per annum. The Madhya Pradesh State Government is expected to receive ₹797.74 as revenue, a premium of ₹712.39 crore ove the floor price of the block.
Sial Ghogri, reserved for the non-regulated sector, saw participation from Hindustan Zinc, Anil Ambani Group's Reliance Cement and OCL Iron and Steel.
The earlier allottee of the block was Prism Cement.
Talabria I
Reserved for the power sector, Talabria I has 33.84 million tonne of mineable reserves and saw interest from Adani Power, GMR Chhattisgarh Energy, Sesa Sterlite, Essar Power and OPG Power Generation, said BusinessLine.
Post the technical stage, a total of 134 bidders were declared eligible to participate in the financial round of the auction.
