Japan's Kobe Steel has finalised a 50:50 joint venture
company with Steel Authority of India Limited(SAIL) to set up a commercial
plant for making iron ore nuggets.The project will come up at Durgapur in West Bengal and will
use the Japanese steel maker's patented iron making technology.
The project which is due be
operational in 2014 will have a capacity to produce 0.5 million tonne of iron nuggets per
year. This will be only the second time that such a plant is being set up anywhere
in the world. The new iron making
technology, ITmk3, will be used to make iron ore nuggets which can be used in
electric arc furnaces.
“We have applied for environmental clearances, following which we would
start construction on the plant in another 7-8 months. About 80% of the iron
ore required for the plant will be fresh arisings out of SAIL's mines while the
remaining 20% will be sourced from dumps,” a top government source close
to the developments told ET.
ITmk3 technology is the latest generation iron making
technology where high quality iron nuggets are produced by using iron ore fines
and non coking coal and is environment friendly. Conventional blast furnace route requires iron
ore lumps, sinter and coking coal to produce pig iron.
“Kobe Steel and SAIL will have the right to utilize the
iron nuggets produced at the Durgapur plant in proportion to their equity share
in the joint venture for their own use,” according to a Kobe Steel
statement on its website.
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