The Ministry of Coal cancels mining licence

India's Ministry of Coal has cancelled the mining licence for the Mandla South coal block won by Jaypee Cement, following the sale of the attached plants to UltraTech Cement. Jaypee sold three of the four projects linked to the block in Madhya Pradesh to UltraTech in January 2017, reports The Economic Times.

According to a letter written by the Ministry, "The successful bidder had sold the end use plants, which is major lapse on the part of successful bidder and also shows the clear intention of successful bidder of being not serious about the development of the coal mine." However, the ministry is awaiting an explanation from the company for the next 15 days.

Jaypee Cement submitted a bid of INR1852/t (US$28.40/t) for the coal block, which has 13.35Mt of extractable reserves.