NMDC's domestic expansion on fact track

Hyderabad: National Mineral Development Corporation (NMDC) has decided to go slow on acquiring overseas mining assets due to the current economic downturn.

The company has temporarily put on hold the acquisition of a couple of iron ore properties abroad,” Mr Rana Som, Chairman and Managing Director of NMDC said.

NMDC was eyeing majority stakes in mining properties in Armenia, Australia and Brazil. Though the due diligence of all the properties was not done, the company had inspected a couple of mines in Armenia.

Company officials had visited two mines in Armenia one with estimated reserves of 300 million tonnes (mt) and the other had around 75 mt of reserves.
He said that the proposed domestic expansion projects, including diversification into steel making, however, were in full swing.

“Not only is the proposed steel mill of three million tonnes on track in Chhattisgarh, all other expansions, including expansion of mines, are going on according to schedule Mr. Som said.

NMDC, as part of its forward integration programme and value addition, had planned to set up a 3 million tonne per year (MTPA) steel plant in Chhattisgarh, two pellet plants of 2 MTPA and 1.2 MTPA capacity respectively one in Bacheli (Chhattisgarh) and another in Donimalai (Karnataka).

The company has also taken a decision to set up a beneficiation plant for extraction of high grade iron ore concentrate from banded hematite jasper (BHJ) and banded hematite quartzite (BHQ) rocks which would be a first of its kind initiative in India.

Mr Som also said that NMDC is set to secure mining lease for Sansangora deposit in Jharkhand. The company, which had already obtained mining lease for Kumaraswamy deposit in Karnataka and deposit-11B in Bailadilla (Chhattisgarh), expects to increase its production by 65-70 per cent with these new and existing mines in the next three to four years.