Australian mining giant Rio Tinto has stated that it plans to invest up to $2 billion with local partners in iron ore exploration in the Indian state of Orissa over the next few years, according to Indian newspaper Business Line.
According to the report, Rio Tinto is renegotiating an agreement with state-owned Orissa Mining Corp. (OMC) to develop and mine three iron ore deposits in the Keonjhar district of Orissa. It is expected that agreement will be finalized soon. Under the new agreement, all iron ore mined by Rio Tinto's joint venture with OMC would be supplied to the domestic market, reversing previous intentions to export iron ore from Orissa.
Rio Tinto owns 51 percent of the joint venture project in question, OMC owns 44 percent, while Indian state-run miner NMDC owns five percent. "We are looking at a scale of annual capacity between five million and 25 million mt in the long term," Rio Tinto India managing director Nic Senapati was quoted as saying