Bhubaneswar, Aug. 7: The state-owned Odisha Mining Corporation is set to achieve its highest-ever production and sale in the midst of a global market slowdown.
This was revealed while reviewing of the corporation's activities by chief secretary Aditya Prasad Padhi on August 5. Padhi set a target to sell eight million tonnes of iron ore this year.
The mining body could sell around 7.7 million tonnes (MT) of iron ore during 2016-17 against 4.5 million tonnes the previous year. The sale of iron ore by July this year crossed 2.14 million tonnes, recording a 9 per cent increase over the corresponding period last year.
In spite of the drastic fall in ferro-chrome price in the international market, the corporation has started its business operation for sale of around 1MT chromites during 2017-18 against 0.8MT in the last financial year. The sale value of this production is expected to be around Rs 2,800 crore, the highest in comparison to the last five years. The corporation's net profit in previous year has been Rs 846 crore after paying all taxes.
The profit-making corporation has constantly enhanced its production of iron ore. From around 1.8MT in 2013-14, the iron ore output has consistently gone up to 6.4MT in 2016-17.
Chief secretary Padhi advised the corporation to enhance its production to 8MT in the current year. A target was set for enhancing the chromite production to 1.16MT.
Managing director of the corporation Vineel Krishna said the mining body had paid Rs 1,415 crore to the government in 2015-16 and Rs 1,548 crore in 2016-17 towards mining royalty, contribution to the district mineral fund, dividend, sales tax and income tax. It has already paid Rs 300 crore towards royalty, dividend and sales tax during the first quarter of the current year. A work plan has been set to step up production to 20MT by 2019-20.
The corporation has set up Odisha Mineral Exploration Corporation Ltd, a 100 per cent subsidiary, to conduct exploratory activities for new mining sites. The scope of the exploratory work has been listed by a committee headed by the director of mines. Four manganese blocks in Balangir district, four bauxite blocks in Rayagada district, seven iron ore blocks at Khandadhar in Sundargarh district, an iron ore block at Thakurani-A in Keonjhar district have been identified for exploration through this newly set-up corporation. Padhi directed engineers and officers of the department to adopt innovative methods to scale up mining operations and business transactions.