India’s central government has approved the reservation and allocation of two iron ore blocks to Odisha Mining Corporation (OMC), a mining arm of the Odisha government, a state official said on Friday, January 8.
The official said that approval of preferential allocation of the iron blocks of Jilling-Langlotta and Guali will enable the state government to rapidly ramp up production of the raw material and alleviate the current shortage faced by domestic steel mills.
Previously, the central government had approved the allocation of the Rengalbada iron ore block in favor of Odisha Mineral Exploration Company Limited (OMECL), another mining arm of the state government, the official said.
Odisha, the country’s largest iron ore producing state, recorded production of 10.35 million mt in November last year, up 10 percent year on year.