The Federation of Indian Mineral Industries (FIMI) is holding its 53rd Annual General Meeting on the backdrop of the mining sector going through its ‘most sluggish growth’ in history.

In addition to the regular concerns regarding taxation and legislative hurdles, this year the annual general meeting (AGM) will see industry players gearing to cope with 48 working mining leases expiring on March 31, 2020.

Another 281 non-working mining leases are expiring on the same date too, and the industry will be pitching for making last ditch efforts to extend these leases for another decade, till 2030.

According to industry estimates, such mines are currently supplying 70 million tonnes of iron ore, besides Manganese and chrome ore which constitutes about 35 per cent of the current production of these vital raw materials for the steel industry in Eastern sector and Karnataka.

The Centre stated that these mining leases should not be extended, but the state governments should auction these blocks to ensure minimum disruption in raw material availability. The Ministry of Mines and the Ministry of Steel are convinced that there will be no shortfall of raw material once the mining leases expire. This is also because of the current mine head stocks of iron-ore.

According to the Ministry of Mines, mine head stocks of Iron Ore stood at 162.845 million tonnes in August this year. Of this, mines in Jharkhand had stocks worth 43.119 million tonnes and Odisha had 94.134 million tonnes. The centre estimates these stocks and imports to last the transition period between cancellation of leases and fresh leases being awarded.

But the industry is worried since they view these iron-ore stocks as liabilities that need to be cleared and are hoping for demand to pick up. The industry is also worried that players may loose access to the existing mines during the auctions and the massive stocks will then cause transition related conflict with the new mine lease holder.

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