NMDC eyes production from domestic coal and gold mines: CMD
Iron ore mining Navratna NMDC will operationalise its domestic coal and gold mines, while also pursuing overseas mineral assets, including those for Lithium in Australia. Responding to a query from ET, NMDC's Chairman and Managing Director (additional charge), Amitava Mukherjee said the mining company's lithium mining plans are at an early stage and feasibility studies will take over a year. In addition to being India's largest iron ore producer, NMDC has been involved in exploration of copper, rock phosphate, limestone, magnesite, diamond, tungsten and beach sands.
The entry into coal and gold is a diversification of the company's porfolio. «We have two coal mining concessions in Jharkand (Tokisud North and Rohne). Currently land acquisition is going on.
We should be able to operationalise Tokisud in another 12-24 months and Rohne in another 24-36 months,» Mukherjee told ET. NMDC had got these coal mines under commercial mining rules during December 2019. These concessions allow the sale of coal from these mines at a premium, not being bound by any price caps.
Rohne has coking coal, which may be used in steel making after some processing. NMDC's Tokisud mine has coal meant for power generation. Commenting on the gold mine with his company, Mukherjee said, «We had one gold concession in Chigargunta (Andhra Pradesh).
It was stuck in a court case for four-five years. That stay has been vacated and we are starting preliminary work. It should take four to five years to get that mine operationalised.»Legacy Iron Ore Limited, an Australian-based subsidiary of NMDC, plans to begin production too.
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