New Delhi, Nov 9 (IANS): States will garner a total revenue of Rs 6,656 crore annually from the success of the nation's first ever commercial mining auction, Union Coal Minister Pralhad Joshi said on Monday.
Addressing a press conference after completion of first round of commercial coal mine auctions, the minister said that in all 19 mines have successfully been auctioned in seven days, which is the highest number of successfully auctioned mines in any tranche of coal auctions.
The results of these auctions are historic and clearly proves that opening up the coal sector was a step in the right direction and is propelling towards making the nation 'Aatmanirbhar' in coal, he said.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi had launched India's first auction of coal mines for commercial mining on June 18.
Joshi said that the mines have witnessed fierce competition and companies have offered great premiums. The highest premium remained at 66.75 per cent whereas the average premium remained at 29 per cent.
Out of 38 mines put on auction, financial bids were received for 19 mines and the success of the auction remained at 50 per cent.
Whereas the average success rate of the previous 10 tranches of coal auctions remained at about 30 per cent as only 35 mines could be auctioned, out of 116 mines put on auction.
Highlighting the bidding pattern, Joshi said that almost 65 per cent bidders were from the 'non-end user' category like real estate, infrastructure, pharma, etc., which is a positive sentiment shared by the industry after removal of 'End Use' criteria from the bidding process.
In all, 42 companies participated in the auction, out of which 40 were private players. Even two PSUs - NALCO and the Andhra Pradesh Mineral Development Corporation Ltd - have participated in the auction.
Out of these successfully auctioned 19 mines, 11 are opencast, 5 are underground mines and remaining 3 are a mix of underground and opencast mines. These mines are spread over give states - Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Odisha, Jharkhand and Maharashtra and have consolidated Peak Rated Capacity (PRC) of 51 million tonnes per annum (MTPA).