India’s JSW Steel Limited will invest an estimated $244 million to develop and operationalize a coking coal block it acquired recently at government held auctions, a company official said in a media statement on Friday, March 17.
The official said that JSW Steel Limited had emerged as the highest bidder for a coking coal block in the eastern state of Jharkhand with estimated reserves of one billion mt and is awaiting formal communication from the government on award of the asset.
He said that the block will be made operational within two to three years and, together with the existing Moitra coking coal block, also in Jharkhand, offers one million mt of clean coal per year to the steel mills of the company, accounting for six to seven percent of its total requirement.
JSW Steel is also aiming to achieve 100 percent sourcing of iron ore from captive mines against 50 percent at present and, considering its target of achieving a steel production capacity of 25-30 million mt, it will require 55 million mt of ore per year, the official said.