NMDC ltd achieved iron ore production of 16.60 million tonnes (MT) (provisional) from its mines in Chhattisgarh as on March 31, 2016, the company informed the Bombay Stock Exchange in its filing.
The company further informed that it achieved sales of 16.40 MT during the aforesaid period.The NMDC Board at its meeting recently had recommended highest ever 1st interim dividend of 950 percent for the year 2015-16 amounting to Rs 3,766 crore, a company statement had informed.
Notably, NMDC which is India’s largest iron ore producer and exporter, has several iron ore mines in leftist insurgency-hit Dantewada district in Chhattisgarh. The mines which have the finest quality of iron ore, are basically located at Kirandul and Bacheli areas which jointly form a sprawling Bailadila hill.
Notably, the Union Steel and Mines Ministry has plans of doubling installed capacity of NMDC ltd’s upcoming 3 MTPA integrated steel plant coming up at Nagarnar in due course once the plant is commissioned.
The company is expecting commercial production of its 3 MTPA capacity steel plant in Chhattisgarh to commence by the middle of 2017. The plant is expected to be ready by December 2016 and trial of same will start by December 2016 itself, officials stated.
In order to increase the domestic capacity of steel production, a concept of Special Purpose Vehicle (SPV) has been introduced, officials stated.
Two MoUs have already been signed by the states of Chhattisgarh and Jharkhand for setting up Greenfield steel plants with initial capacity of 3 million tonnes per annum (MTPA) each to be later enhanced to 6 MTPA. More than Rs 70,000 crore will be invested for setting up of these steel plants.
NMDC has also planned to generate about 70 MW of captive power using gases from steel making processes in the upcoming 3 MTPA Nagarnar steel plant. The power would be generated from gases released from blast furnace, coke oven and ‘lD gases’.
The total power requirement of the steel plant would be around 420 MW in which the mines, pellet plant and the slurry pumping system would require around 120 MW of power, officials stated.
The remaining 350 MW power would be conventional in nature which would be fulfilled by the captive power plant and the Chhattisgarh State Power Distribution Company ltd (CSPDCl).