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The State-owned iron ore mining major NMDC Ltd has set a production target of 35 million tonnes and sales target of 38 MT for 2015-16 and a three-fold increase in production by 2021-2022.
The miner, which is in the process of diversifying into couple of new areas, including steel production, coal mining and manufacture of potash for fertilisers, through joint venture entities, is planning a major production boost targeting volumes of 65-75 MT by 2018-19 and 100 MT by 2021-22.
Narendra Kothari, Chairman and Managing Director of NMDC, said that the sales target of 38 MT planned during 2015-16, includes 3 MT of iron ore produced during the current financial year. NMDC has recently entered into a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with the Ministry of Steel pertaining to its performance for 2015-16.
Referring to the perspective plan for its growth and expansion, the NMDC CMD said that a Vision Document is being readied and is likely to be completed by April–May this year and submitted to the Government.
Speaking on the sidelines of “Movement for efficiency and transparency,” an event hosted here in partnership with mjunction Services, a facilitator of online sale of iron ore and lately even telecom spectrum auction, Kothari said NMDC's long-term objective is to produce about 100 MT of iron ore of the country’s target of 300 MT by 2024-25. “We are currently producing a third of the country’s 100 MT iron ore output,” he said.
Referring to the diversification projects initiated by NMDC, Kothari said that the 3 MT steel plant coming up at Naganar with an investment of Rs 15,500 crore would be ready by December 2016 and efforts are now underway to increase the output from the International Coal Ventures Limited, a venture of SAIL, RINL, NTPC and NMDC, located in Mozambique and taken over from Rio Tinto.
NMDC is also in the process of considering manufacture of potash, through a joint venture, required for fertliser plants in the country, by importing raw material.
Asked about the company reserves and how they plan to deploy these funds, Kothari said the steel plant now underway, the acquisition of Legacy mine in Australia and joint venture projects with other companies for coal and for manufacture of potash, are part of the plan to deploy these funds for new projects.
Mentioning about iron ore price trends, he hoped that the ore prices may look up during the year ahead.
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