NMDC diversifies into coal

New Delhi: The country's largest iron ore miner NMDC has diversified into coal with allotment of two coal blocks in the Hazaribagh district of Jharkhand. It will also help the state-owned company set up coal washeries.

"NMDC Ltd diversifies into coal. The Ministry of Coal has allocated two coal blocks to NMDC, Rohne and Tokisud North. I thank Government of India, Ministry of Steel, and Ministry of Coal for reposing faith on NMDC for diversifying into coal," said NMDC Chairman and Managing Director N Baijendra Kumar.

The coal ministry has allocated Rohne and Tokisud North coal blocks under Section 5(1) of the Coal Mines (Special Provisions) Act, 2015, for commercial mining, NMDC said in a statement. The Rohne coal block has extractable reserves of 191 million tonnes (MT) and planned production capacity of 8 million tonnes per annum, and the Tokisud North coal block has extractable reserves of about 52 MT of thermal coal and planned production capacity of 2.32 million tonnes per annum.

Both the blocks are located at aerial distance of about 10-15 kms, said NMDC, which is setting up its first steel plant at Nagarnar in the neighbouring state of Chhattisgarh.

The Rohne coal block, the company said, has coking coal which may require washing for feeding into steel plant and, hence, it is exploring the possibility of setting up of coal washeries. While it executes an allotment agreement of Tokisud North coal block on December 24 for the Rohne coal block, the allotment agreement would be executed as per the directives from the coal ministry.

An NMDC official said, "While the Tokisud North coal block was e-allotted, Rohne coal block was a direct allotment. Our administrative ministry, the Ministry of Steel, on behalf of NMDC had requested the coal ministry which allotted the mine to us." NMDC's coal division has also been set up in Hyderabad to look after coal assets in India and provide linkage to steel and power sectors, the official said. pti