New Delhi, March 7: The government raised Rs 12,591 crore from the sale of three mines to Hindalco, Jindal Power and Indrajit Power today, the third day of the second tranche of coal block auctions.

Jindal Power emerged as the highest bidder for the ready-to-produce Tara block in Chhattisgarh. Jindal Power's bid was Rs 126 a tonne.

Tara has extractable reserves of 166.92 million tonnes and was previously owned by Chhattisgarh Mineral Development Corporation.

Jindal Power was also the highest bidder for the Gare Palma IV/2&3 block. However, that bid is currently under investigation.

Aditya Birla Group's Hindalco today won the Dumri block in Jharkhand at a bid price of Rs 2,127 a tonne. The ready-to-produce block is Hindalco's third win after it won two producing coal blocks between February 14 and February 22.

Dumri has extractable reserves of 46.13mt and was previously owned by Nilachal Iron and Power Ltd.

The third block on offer, Nerad Malegaon in Maharashtra, was sold to Indrajit Power for Rs 660 a tonne.

The block has around 20 million tonnes of geological reserves and was previously owned by Gupta Metallics and Power.

For Tara block, it was reverse bidding, while for the other two coal blocks it was forward bidding.

With the three blocks, the government stands to garner over Rs 1.43 lakh core, including over Rs 1 lakh crore from the auction of 19 blocks in the first tranche.

Three more coal blocks will be put up for auction when the bidding starts tomorrow.

The proceeds have been calculated based on extractable reserves and highest bid price.

For Dumri, the companies in the fray were Balco, Easternrange Coal Mining, Hindalco, Lakeview Dealtrade, Rungta Mines, Natural Resources, Sesa Sterlite and Usha Martin.

Nine firms - Adani Power, Adani Power Rajasthan, Adani Power Maharashtra, Athena Chhattisgarh Power, Jindal Power, JSW Energy, KSK Mahanadi Power Company, Lanco Amarkantak Power and RattanIndia Nasik Power - were vying for Tara block.

The players in the race for Nerad Malegaon were Godawari Power and Ispat, Grace Industries, Indrajit Power, OCL Iron & Steel and Sunflag Iron & Steel Company.

On March 5, Mandakini Exploration and Mining bagged the Mandakini block in Odisha, while the Meral mine in Jharkhand went to Trimula Industries, in the process fetching an estimated Rs 19,633 crore for the states.

On March 4, the first day of the second round of the auction, three mines garnered Rs 11,083 crore.

In the second leg of the coal block auction, the government has put 15 blocks up for sale, which are under the "ready-for- production" category.

The auctions follow the Supreme Court's decision last year to cancel the allocation of 204 coal mines.