Seventeen companies, including both national and international companies have submitted EoIs to Coal India for the development and operation of high capacity underground mines in seven blocks on long-term basis.
The blocks spread over West Bengal, Jharkhand, Orissa, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh and Maharashtra are estimated to have geological mining reserves of approximately 1,200 million tpa.
Reliance Natural Resources (RNRL) (along with a foreign partner), Essar Mineral Resources and Essel Mining are the three Indian companies that have expressed interest in the projects. Apart from a few Chinese companies, the prominent international mining and mining technology companies that submitted EoIs include Rio Tinto of Australia, Anglo American of the UK, Asscon Infrastructure, DBT and Walter Mining.
It is learnt that, CIL will now seek detailed techno-economic and price bids from the short-listed parties for the development and operation of each of the seven blocks. The coal major will finance the cost of development (including creation of supply logistics) of the proposed mines and would enter into long-term agreements with eligible parties for procurement of coal on operation cost-plus basis.
The investment required for development of the mineable reserves in the blocks and the estimated annual production from the proposed mines will be known following detailed tendering, sources say that Coal India is looking forward to 2-5 million tonnes of annual production from each mine. |