GMR bags Rs 1,375 crore mine in first coal auction pipping Adani power, Essar

New Delhi: The maiden auction of coal mines got under way on Saturday, with GMR and Reliance Cement bagging one mine each for an estimated Rs 1,375 crore and Rs 798 crore respectively. “GMR Chhattisgarh Energy won the Talabira-1 coal block in Odisha,” coal secretary Anil Swarup said. GMR pipped Adani Power, Essar Power, Sesa Sterlite and others by bidding at rS478 per tonne to get the mine, he added.

The Odisha mine, earmarked for the power sector, has extractable reserves of 28.77 million tonnes. Anil-Ambani led Reliance Cement beat Hindustan Zinc (HZL) and OCL Iron & Steel to bag the Sial Ghoghri coal mine in e in Chhindwara district of Madhya Pradesh. The mine has total reserves of 29.38 million tonnes and extractable reserves of 5.69 million tonnes.

Reliance Cement bid Rs 1,402 per tonne to get the mine. The block was alloted to Prism Cement earlier. This mine is earmarked for the non-power sector. After the SC allocation of 204 mines in September, the government had decided to auction the blocks. It is putting up 19 blocks on sale in the first tranche.