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Kolkata, April 10 Having put its “house in order” in FY-22, Gujarat Mineral Development Corporation (GMDC) is poised to “take off” and hopes to continue the growth momentum moving forward.
The company, which currently has over 85 per cent of its revenues coming from lignite operations, is looking to ramp up the share of non-lignite to close 50 per cent of the total turnover in the next five-to-seven years.
According to Roopwant Singh, MD, GMDC, the company currently caters to nearly one-quarter of the total demand of Gujarat. The aim would be to ramp up its lignite production capacity so as to be able to cater to nearly 50 per cent of the demand of Gujarat and also look to explore other markets including Maharashtra and NCR.
GMDC has recently been allotted lignite blocks in Panandhro Extension (Kutch), Bharkandam (Kutch), while four other blocks have been reserved for GMDC at Valia and Damkai Padal in Bharuch District, Ghala in Surat district and Lakhpat in Kutch.
“We currently cater to a quarter of lignite demand in Gujarat. We want to deepen that and increase our production capacity to cater to nearly 50 per cent of the domestic demand in Gujarat and whatever we will produce over and above that we will divert it to neighbouring states and to Maharashtra and NCR. This will require two years of intense work, we hope to be able to achieve this by FY-25,” Singh told BusinessLine.
To invest in six lignite projects
The company has onboarded Deloitte to help deepen their lignite operations. The aim would be to pursue these six new lignite projects in the same vigour. Each of these projects would require ₹200-250 crore worth of initial capital investment and it would be funded through internal accruals, he said.
GMDC has ramped up its production capacity to 8 million tonne (mt) in FY-22, up from 6 mt in FY-21. It is looking to grow its production by 10-15 per cent during the current financial year.
The company has lined up capital investments to the tune of ₹670 crore in FY-23, of which close to ₹470 crore will go into land acquisition which is needed to kickstart the operations and ₹120 crore would go into various capital expenditure to revive some of its brownfield projects and plants .
GMDC would also focus on developing its metal assets to help diversify into non-lignite operations and “future proof” the company, he said.
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