KIOCL Limited Chairman-cum-Managing Director T Saminathan said that the captive mining operations at Devadari in Sandur taluk in Ballari district is likely to begin by March 2023.
The company, which recently received stage-1 approval from Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change (MoEFCC) for iron ore and manganese ore mining, is expecting to get the stage-2 clearance by March 2022.
By all means, the mining operations will begin by 2023, he told mediapersons at Patrika Bhavan.
The Devadari will have a mine capacity of 2 MTPA iron ore and 500 TPA Managanese ore with 2 MTPA wet beneficiation plant, he added.
"We are in the middle of executing both backward and forward integration plans at Blast Furnace Unit at Mangaluru. The tendering process was delayed due to Covid-19 pandemic, subsequent travel restrictions and changes in public procurement policy, GFR and mandatory registration with Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT) GoI by foreign bidders, sharing the country border. The company is investing all its efforts to bring the project at the earliest with the company planning to set up a coke oven plant as part of backward integration. As part of a forward integration plan, we are looking at setting up a ductile iron spun pipe plant and the project is likely to be completed in the two years,” he added.
Further, he stated that the mineral exploration works assigned by National Mineral Exploration Trust (NMET), Ministry of Mines of Government of India and Department of Mines and Geology of Government of Karnataka are under different stages of execution. The KIOCL completed G4 level exploration works for four blocks and submitted the report to the NMET which includes minerals such as Nickel, Limestone and Dolomite. In addition, 10 blocks of iron and Managanese ore allotted by Government of Karnata for G2 and G3 level of exploration works are in progress, he explained.
Considering the huge opportunities in both domestic and global markets for its product - high-grade iron ore pellets - KIOCL is planning to explore new business opportunities in India and overseas markets. Consistent efforts are on to expand the markets in Brazil, Oman, Malaysia, MENA countries in addition to Chinese markets. The share of Chinese market is 44 per cent, MENA countries 33 per cent and the remaining is Brazil and Malaysia.
Tolling arrangement
As a part of Atmanirbhar Bharath, the KIOCL Ltd is looking to enter into tolling arrangement with various oversea suppliers of high grade iron ore. It will be a buy-back agreement after conversion of pellets, it will be supplied to the suppliers of iron ore.
This will in turn help to increase the capacity utilization of Pellet plant. The company is in talks with JSPL-Jindal Sadeed, Oman and with Posco of South Korea through Glencore.
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