In an exchange filing made on Saturday (11 March 2023), the company announced that the expert appraisal committee (EAC) (non-coal mining), Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change (MoEF&CC), has considered and recommended for grant of environmental clearance (EC) for Bagiaburu iron ore mines of OMDC.

The Orissa Minerals Development Company (OMDC) is a schedule-B CPSE. OMDC was operating six iron ore and manganese ore mining leases at Barbil in the district of Keonjhar, Odisha. Out of which, three leases, namely Dalki Manganese Mines, Kolha-Roida Iron & Manganese mines, Thakurani Iron & Manganese Mines are in the name of Bharat Process and Mechanical Engineers' (BPMEL), were being operated by OMDC under Power of Attorney.

The other three mines Belkundi Iron & Manganese Mines, Bagiaburu Iron Mines and Bhadrasahi Iron & Manganese Mines are in the name of OMDC. The mining lease validity of all these three OMDC Mines have been extended by Govt of Odisha, till 15th Aug 2026, 10th Oct 2041 and 30th Sep 2030 respectively.

All the mines have been inoperative for want of statutory clearances, for which necessary actions have been taken by the company to start mining. All the six mines together have an estimated reserve of about 201 million tonnes of iron ore and 27 million tonnes of manganese ore.

The company reported a standalone net loss of Rs 8.89 crore in the quarter ended December 2022 as against net loss of Rs 4.78 crore during the previous quarter ended December 2021. Sales declined 73.39% to Rs 7.91 crore in Q3 FY23 over Q3 FY22.

The scrip shed 0.33% to currently trade at Rs 2677.25 on the BSE.