India: SAIL, Tata Steel promise fresh investments to boost mining capacity in Jharkhand

Steel majors Steel Authority of India Ltd. (SAIL) and Tata Steel made a string of important investment proposals at the recent two-day business summit in New Delhi with Jharkhand Chief Minister Hemant Soren. The occasion was the launch of the Jharkhand Industrial and Investment Promotion Policy 2021, which has already garnered investments worth INR 10,000 crore for the state.

Gua mine expansion

SAIL has committed to invest INR 4,000 crore in Jharkhand over the next three years to augment the capacity of its Gua iron ore mines. The investment will expand the capacity of the mine to 10 mn t/year from the existing 4 mn t.

The PSU steelmaker is also going for a beneficiation technology to upgrade iron ore quality from the mine from the existing Fe 61% to Fe 63%. As the company digs deeper into the mine, the quality of ore starts showing marked deterioration. The beneficiation technology is geared towards addressing this problem.

Sources have further informed that the company has drawn up plans to install a 4 mn t pellet plant in the state. Notably, the absence of pelletisation facilities has held SAIL back from beneficiating and/or value-adding to low-grade iron ore fines, with a huge quantity of undispatched material lying at the company's mine sites in Jharkhand. However, SAIL has received a go-ahead from the government to auction the dump fines.

Tata Steel pledges INR 3,000 crore

While highlighting the company's 114-year-old association with the state, Tata Steel has promised to invest INR 3,000 crore in Jharkhand in the next three years to augment capacities of its captive coal and iron ore mines and downstream value-added steel portfolio.

SteelMint has reported earlier that the steelmaker has sought EC for expanding its Noamundi iron ore mine in the state from 10 mn t to 19 mn t/year.

As per latest reports, Tata Steel CEO T.V. Narendran has informed that the company's cumulative capex will be around INR 8,000 crore for the India operations in FY'22. A bulk of that will go into completing the expansion of the company's Kalinganagar plant in Odisha. The rest will be spent on expansion of mining and recycling capacity, Narendran said.