Essar Steel Ltd on Wednesday signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with the Institute of Minerals and Materials Technology, Bhubaneswar (IMMT-B) for research and development of iron ore beneficiation technology. Essar, Vizag chief operating officer (COO) MK Sampath and IMMT-B director Barada Kanta Mishra signed the MoU.
“The Essar group has plans to set up iron ore processing units in various parts of India and abroad,” said Sampath. “Essar Steel’s tieup with IMMT-B will help use indigenously developed technology for processing of low-grade iron ore to recover iron value and optimise operations at the company’s beneficiation plant at Kirandul in Chhattisgarh”.
The expertise of IMMT-B will also be used to recover iron values through processing of plant wastes like tailings and slimes of mines and assess plant performance when different types of feed materials are used. Besides, IMMT-B will help Essar fine-tune its plant operations in India and abroad.
Essar Steel selected IMMT-B for the job on the basis of the scientific organisation’s work at Essar Kirandul. The scientists of IMMT-B enabled Essar’s beneficiation plant to run at capacity. The plant, originally designed to run at a capacity of 700 tonne per hour, was down to 450-500 tonne per hour.
The tieup with IMMT-B will also provide the required technology for the 8 million tonne beneficiation plant being set up by Essar Steel in Orissa.