Coal news and updates

Auctioned coal blocks produced 9.50 mt of coal till Dec

A total of eight coal blocks that were e-auctioned post de-allocation by the Supreme Court in September 2014 and that are so far in production stage had yielded a total 9.50 million tons (mt) of coal during the first 9 months of 2015-16 (April-December), a source said.

The production volumes by these blocks during the corresponding period of 2014-15 stood at 14.40 mt.

However, total production by all the captive coal blocks, including those linked to the Sasan ultra mega power plants, stood at 21.57 mt during the 9 months of 2015-16, down 46.61% compared to 40.40 mt produced during the same period of 2014-15.

Production from the Sasan UMPP linked blocks – Moher and Moher Amlori Extension – stood at about 12 mt during the 9 months of current financial year as against about 7.0 mt produced in the same period of the previous financial year.

The decline in total production by captive blocks during the 9-month period of 2015-16 is mainly on account of the fact that as many as 20 blocks are yet to commence production due to delay in getting statutory clearances to start production.

Some of the mines, which have been allotted through e-auction, are facing legal hurdles as previous allottees had filed litigations in view of difference in valuation of investment made by them and the value assessed by the government, industry sources said.

Meanwhile, it is expected that no new captive mines are likely to commence production during the balance three months starting January 2016 even as the government expects that at least two mines will be able to start production in the last quarter of 2015-16.

ICMW understands that around nine new captive mines may be in a position to commence production in 2016-17 as the possibility of starting production from another 12 mines looks a bit hazy and even if 9 new mines come to production that will increase the tally of operational captive mines to 19.