Taking a step forward to diversifying into coal and coking coal, India?s largest iron ore producer NMDC is in talks for acquiring coking coal mines in British Columbia, a Canadian province.
It is understood that at a trade event in Canada 10 days ago, the British Columbia government had invited Indian companies to invest in mining companies in the province. According to a source present at the event, NMDC and Tata Steel had expressed interest in acquiring mines in the mineral rich region.
Confirming the development, NMDC chairman Rana Som said, ?We have discussed with geologists there and also with the concerned minister for mines on the availability of coking coal properties in British Columbia. The province?s officials had briefed us on picking up stake in coking coal mines there. But we are more interested in acquiring a mine and operating it rather than just picking up stake,? he said.
However, NMDC is keeping British Columbia?s option open and keeping a close watch on it, he said. ?At the same time, we are also trying to get operating mines in the US,? he added.
According to the Canadian government website, British Columbia has over 20 billion tonnes of coal resource for surface or shallow underground mining. For coal bed methane exploration, the coal resource available upto a depth of 2,000 metres is over 250 billion tonnes.
NMDC currently has two coal blocks in Madhya Pradesh, containing an estimated 100 million tonnes of reserves. NMDC ? which is now diversifying into the steel-making business ? has also been looking for captive coal reserves to feed its proposed new plants in Karnataka and Chhattisgarh.
The company is also a part of International Coal Ventures ? a consortium of PSUs like SAIL, Coal India and NTPC ? that was formed with the objective of acquiring overseas coal assets. Moreover, as a part of its search for raw material integration for Corus, Tata Steel has also expressed interest to the government of British Columbia to acquire coking coal mines there, a source said. An e-mail send to Koushik Chatterjee, Group CFO, Tata Steel did not elicit any response.
It is understood that a British Columbia delegation will be India in the next 2-3 months for trade related talks, where they would be targeting MoUs and also invite Indian companies to invest in the province’s mines. ?British Columbia has most of its investment from Chinese companies and they do not want to rely on just one country. Hence, they would want Indian companies to go and invest in their state,? the source revealed.