In order to promote and encourage sustainable mining in India, NMDC and FICCI jointly organized National Seminar on “Responsible Mining in New Paradigm and Growth & Investment Opportunities for Mining and Steel in the Mineral Rich States” on 24-25 Apr’18 in Raipur, Chhattisgarh.
The seminar observed the presence of stalwarts from Indian mining and steel industry including Mr. Sunil Barthwal, Joint Secretary Ministry of Steel; Mr. Vishnu Deo Sai, Minister of State for Steel and Mines and Shri N Baijendra Kumar, Chairman cum Managing Director, NMDC.
The key findings from the seminar were as follows:
1. NMDC’s Nagarnar Steel plant is likely to start operations in October 2018 which has steel capacity of 3 MnT pa. The company is also eyeing to set up more steel plants in future to increase iron ore usage.
2. NMDC signed MoU with CHiPS ( Chhattisgarh Infotech Promotion Society) on Strategic partnerships for technology infusion in the mining sector. The agreement is for information technology (IT) and electronic systems-driven automation which will work in digitizing NMDC offices.
3. NMDC signed MoU with NIT Raipur for a collaborative research project “feasibility studies on removal contamination from surface & groundwater in Bailadila.
4. NMDC achieved record high iron ore production of 35.5 MnT since inception in FY18, sales also record high at 36.07 MnT.
5. On the sidelines of the event, Shri N Baijendra Kumar, NMDC shared that company is planning to acquire more mines to increase domestic iron ore output so as to meet the increasing steel demand. They might participate further in Odisha iron ore block auctions also to strengthen material availability in different states.
6. Mr. Sunil Barthwal, Ministry of Steel mentioned Chhattisgarh has become largest sponge iron producing state in India, abundant with Hematite and coal reserves. Chhattisgarh can play a leading role in the development of electric route in iron & steel in the country. Govt of India is coming out with commercial vehicle scrapping policy in 2020 wherein the govt. fixed 20 years as the lifetime for commercial vehicles (CV) and the policy will be effective from 01 Apr’2020. Chhattisgarh can have scrap recycling plants and industry should look forward to it. It will help further the DRI plants.
7. Some bottlenecks which Indian steel industry is facing like rake shortage for movement of iron ore, cost of power and processing time in obtaining statutory clearances for mine were also discussed.
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