The Hindu Business Line : Gujarat NRE Coke to complete Elouera buy soon

Kolkata, Nov. 21 Gujarat NRE Coke Ltd will complete the acquisition of the Elouera coal mine in Australia from BHP Billiton within the next one month. The mine, which is located south of Sydney, is being acquired through a group company for A$50 million, according to Mr Arun Kumar Jagatramka, Vice Chairman & Managing Director of GNCL.

Speaking to reporters on the eve of the Global Steel 2007 Conference that is scheduled to begin here on Wednesday, Mr Jagatramka said Elouera would be the third coal mine in Australia to be acquired by the GNCL Group.

Earlier, the group had acquired the NRE No I Colliery in Southern Coalfields of New South Wales, Australia, and the NRE Avondale coal mine.

Mr Jagatramka said the aggregate capacity of both the earlier acquisitions was 0.7 million tonnes per annum at present. This would be hiked to 4.5 million tonnes (mt) within the next four years. By that time, the capacity of the Elouera mine would stand augmented at 2.5 mt per annum.

According to him, GNCL was engaged in brownfield expansion of its met coke manufacturing plant located at Dharwad, Karnataka. The plant’s capacity was being augmented by 0.25 mt per annum at an estimated capital investment of Rs 80 crore. This cost of expansion would be met “mainly through internal accruals”, he said.

With the expansion of the Dharwad plant, GNCL’s coke manufacturing capacity would go up to 1.25 mt within the next one year. GNCL’s other two coke manufacturing plants are located at Khambhalia and Bhachau in Gujarat, he said.

More Stories on : Mergers & Acquisitions | Coke & Metalurgical Coke | Coal

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