JSW Steel plans to invest ₹2,000 crore in virgin coking coal mine in Jharkhand.

Sajjan Jindal-led JSW Steel is planning to invest ₹2,000 crore to develop a virgin coking coal mine in Jharkhand. The company has been declared the highest bidder for the coking coal mine put on auction recently and it is waiting for an official communication from the government.

JSW Steel expects the new mine to become operational in 2-3 years. The mine has reserves of about one billion tonne, similar to the company’s Moitra coking coal mine located in the same State.

Seshagiri Rao, Joint Managing Director, JSW Steel told businessline that the company will blend 20-30 per cent of domestic coal with high quality coal to bring down the overall cost.

“We will get about one million tonne of clean coal after both the mines come into operation in 2-3 years and this accounts for 6-7 per cent of our annual requirement,” he added.

On difficulties in developing a virgin mine, he said the company has considerable experience in mining and it currently operates four mines in Odisha, nine in Karnataka, a lignite mine in Rajasthan and one mine each in Dubai and the US.

HBL