New Delhi, Nov 4 (IANS): Jindal Power Ltd, JMS Mining and Boulder Stone Mart Pvt have placed winning bids for four coal mines put on auction by the government on the third day for commercial mining lease auctions on Wednesday.

Jindal Power placed the winning bid for the Gare-Palma-IV/1 coal mine in Chhattisgarh while JMS Mining won the bidding round for for the Urtan North coal mine in Madhya Pradesh. The successful bid of Boulder Stone Mart was placed for the Gotitoria East and Gotitoria West coal mines in Madhya Pradesh.

The mines placed on auction on the third day have a total coal reserve of over 161 million tonne. Winning bidders could produce about 7 mt of coal per annum from these mines with maximum output coming from Gare Palma Block with peak rated capacity of 6 mt per annum.

The e-auction witnessed strong competition amongst the bidders with all mines attracting good premiums over the floor price, a Coal Ministry statement on the third day of the auction said.

The bids got values of over 50 per cent of the reserve price in a few cases while the annual revenue generated from these mines will be to the tune of over Rs 700 crore.

A total of 38 coal mines have been put on auction by the Coal Ministry for commercial mining. There have been 76 bids from 42 companies for 23 coal mines, with the remaining 15 mines not getting any bids.

Till now, winning bids on the first two days of auctions have been placed for nine coal mines by firms such as Vedanta Ltd, Hindalco Industries Ltd, and Adani Enterprises.