This is from today's Australian's, also the link below is worth...

This is from today's Australian's, also the link below is worth the read.  We just need to wait until 2016/18 for the sp to be higher, hopefully above $1+

http://www.theaustralian.com.au/bus...re-coal-projects/story-e6frg9df-1227070800261




INDIA’S Supreme Court cancelled hundreds of coalmining licences, adding uncertainty beyond the struggling coal industry to the heart of Asia’s third-largest economy.
The country’s highest court said control over almost all coal blocks allotted since 1993 would have to be returned, saying they were granted illegally. The decision could aggravate a coal shortage in the country, analysts said.
The cancellation puts at least $US47 billion ($53.2bn) of investments in such industries as power, steel and aluminium at risk, said Ashok Khurana, director general at the Association of Power Producers.

“It does create uncertainty in the mind of an investor,” he said. “He will think that even after 10, 15 or 20 years, a court may strike down the policy on which he (based) his investment decision.”  Ajay Bhatt, the chief financial officer of Monnet Ispat & Energy said his company had invested almost $US2bn in building steel and power plants in the past five years with the assumption it would have a stable supply of coal from blocks it had been allotted.
“Who will compensate me?” he asked. “I have paid taxes, paid royalty and dividends. There is a huge shadow of uncertainty.”

The cancellations followed a ruling by the court last month that issuance of the licences was arbitrary and non-transparent. India’s federal auditor in 2012 said the government lost as much as 1.86 trillion rupees ($34.5bn) in potential revenue because it granted the licences without competitive bidding. The Supreme Court yesterday cancelled 214 of the 218 coal-block licences issued since 1993.

The decision took effect immediately for the 172 mines that weren’t in production. The cancellation will take effect in six months for 42 blocks that had begun production, to ensure that coal supplies aren’t affected as the government decides what to do with the licences. It is likely that some would be auctioned while others would remain with state-owned or state-run companies, analysts said.

The four licences spared were for two blocks granted to Reliance Power for a large power project and one each to NTPC and Steel Authority of India.  While only about 7 per cent of the mines covered by the licences are producing coal, there are billions of dollars of investment riding on their future.

“Our main concern is on the kind of negative impact on the economy, which has just been showing signs of recovery after over two years of slowdown,” said Rana Kapoor, president of the Associated Chambers of Commerce and Industry. Before the ruling, the industry group said cancellation could lead to huge losses and loan defaults.

As companies have waited to learn the fate of the coalmining rights, India has faced a severe coal crunch. The country needs to produce more coal if it wants economic growth to reach 10 per cent again, economists have said.

About 70 per cent of India’s electricity is generated by burning coal. The country is the world’s third-largest producer of coal, behind China and the US. Yet it relies heavily on imports because of mismanagement and an onerous bureaucracy in coal exploration, production and power generation. As a result, nearly a quarter of India’s 1.2 billion people have no electricity, according to the World Bank.

http://www.theaustralian.com.au/bus...-scandal-permits/story-fnay3ubk-1227070724774