Union Minister for Mines, Shri Pralhad Joshi inaugurates production activity in two new iron ore mines of Odisha

Union Minister for Mines, Shri Pralhad Joshi and Chief Minister of Odisha, Shri Naveen Patnaik today, jointly inaugurated the production in two new iron ore mines of Odisha namely Jiling-Langlota Iron ore Block and Guali Iron ore Block. Both the mines have production capacity of 15 lakh tonnes per month and they possess approx. 275 million tonnes of consolidated iron ore reserves. Shri Ashwini Vaishnaw, Member of Parliament from Rajya Sabha was also present in the function, which was organised through video conferencing.

These blocks were recently reserved for the Odisha Mining Corporation (OMC), a state PSU, within a short time of 25 days, after a request was made by State Government to the Central Government, in order to ease the shortage of iron ore in the state of Odisha.

“These Mines will help in stabilising the supplies for small industries and will generate huge employment opportunities in the state. The two mines will generate approx. Rs. 4000-5000 crores of annual revenue forthe state of Odisha.” said Shri Joshi. He also requested the Chief Minister of Odisha to bring more mines into auction and operationalization of all non-working mines, to increase the production and revenue generation in the state.

He also assured Odisha government of extending full support for realizing the vision of Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi of making the nation AatmaNirbhar in mineral production. Shri Joshi also stressed that the operations by OMC will play a very important role in market stabilization and availability of iron ore in the state. The commencementof iron ore production in these mines will help in reducing the iron ore shortage in the state to a large extent and also in the nation as a whole.