The Hindu : Business : POSCO presses for mining lease

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Thursday, Jun 22, 2006

Business

Business

POSCO presses for mining lease

Staff Reporter

The company awaits Centre's approval for prospecting licence

BHUBANESWAR: As resistance to its proposed 12 million tonne capacity steel plant was growing one year after it signed the memorandum of understanding with the Orissa Government, POSCO-India on Wednesday said it would not be possible for the company to execute the project if it was not given iron ore mines on lease.

"There is no meaning without captive mines,'' Soung-Sik Cho, Chairman-cum-Managing Director of POSCO-India, said at a press conference here.

He, however, said the company was hopeful of getting the mining lease to implement the project at a total cost of Rs. 51,000 crore.

The company, which had filed applications for prospecting licences for three areas in September last year and also applied for mining lease for well explored areas, is now awaiting the Centre's approval.

Doubts have been raised over grant of mining lease for captive use following reports that the Centre's mining policy was under review and that the new policy was unlikely to favour captive mining by steelmakers.

He said the company had modified its plant layout 60 times with the aim of minimising displacement of locals in Jagatsinghpur district. Only 400 families would be displaced as the area for the plant site had been reduced from 5,000 acres to 4,000 acres.

Meanwhile, the General Secretary of the Communist Party of India, A. B. Bardhan, said the company should not be allotted iron ore mines on lease and should be asked to buy ore from the State Government-run Orissa Mining Corporation.

Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik reviewed the progress on the POSCO project on Wednesday and instructed officials concerned to facilitate execution of the steel project.

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