According to Chhattisgarh police sources, Maoist guerrillas are planning to step up attacks on iron ore mining facilities in the Bailadila hills in Chhattisgarh, which are known for one of the largest and finest quality iron ore stocks in the world and account for 18% of India's estimated 24 billion tonnes of iron ore deposits.

Police sources added that they have found leaflets and posters in which the radicals have vowed to intensify attacks.The leaflets were found just two days after Mr B Ramesh Kumar CMD of NMDC admitted at a press conference in Hyderabad that the company suffered losses of INR 1.15 billion in 2006-07 and INR 900 million so far in this fiscal due to Maoist attacks on mining facilities in Bailadila hills.

The Bailadila hills iron ore is divided into 14 deposits. The National Mineral Development Corp Ltd , India's largest public sector iron ore producer and exporter, has mining activities in 3 deposits. It also has a deal with the Chhattisgarh government for opening up deposit number 13 in a JV.

It is noted that the Maoists also killed 8 Central Industrial Security Force personnel in February 2006 in an attack at NMDC's explosives store at Bailadila hills. The guerrillas had taken away huge stocks of high-powered explosives that are yet to be recovered.