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Kudremukh Iron Ore Company Ltd (KIOCL) has made a turnaround in the last fiscal despite not having captive mines.
The performance is commendable as there were challenges in the absence of captive mine, lack of iron ore security and the huge logistic cost in moving iron ore from Kirandul-Bacheli sector of NMDC to the pellet plant located at Mangalore Port, said Malay Chatterjee, CMD, KIOCL.
The company has turned around during 2016-17 by registering profit after tax of ₹47.93 crore, from a loss of ₹80.15 crore in the last financial year (2015-16).
Chatterjee expressed confidence in sustainability with the allotment of iron ore mines at Devadari Range in Bellary district in Karnataka under the reservation route on approval of the Central government. Necessary gazette notification has been issued in January after a spell of 12 years since the closure of its mine and its capability at Kudremukh in December 2005. The company has already prepared an action plan and initiated the process for obtaining the necessary statutory clearances.
“We need to get forest clearances in this mine area and pay compensation. It may take up to 36 months, but we are confident to bring the timeline to 24 months,” said Chatterjee, at a press conference here.
The company plans to set up a 1 MPTA pellet plant at the mine head at a cost of ₹1,300 crore. This is expected to provide direct jobs to 500 people. Chatterjee said “We will erect a mine based pellet plant here of capacity of one MPTA and this will increase our output for both domestic needs and exports.”
The company has the potential in palletisation and beneficiation technology and is aiding NMDC, saving the costs and in value addition for the latter.
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