Merchant miners get permission to stack minerals in stockyard by Odisha govt

The minerals produced by the merchant miners in Odisha have been given intermediate storage facilities for ores like iron ore, manganese ore and chromite ore. the merchant miners have got permission now, like the end-use industries, to stash ore in storage depots or stockyards from the state steel & mines department.

The license that would be given to merchant miners will be valid till March 31, 2022. the non-captive or merchant have been granted this facility of storage licenses keeping in view the fact that their lease validity ceases by March 31, 2020. As of now, Odisha has 16 operative merchant miners whose lease ownership ends by that period as per the provisions included in the amended Mines and Minerals- Development & Regulation (MMDR) Act of 2015.

The merged approved output of iron ore from these mines is 85 million tonnes against which they were producing 55-60 million tonnes annually.