India’s largest iron ore miner, government-owned NMDC Limited, has set a target to produce 45 million mt of iron ore during the financial year 2018-19, up from the 35 million mt expected at the close of the current fiscal year on March 31, 2018, a company official said on Monday, January 22.
The rise in production in the next fiscal year will help to achieve long-term production growth to 67 million mt by 2022, the official added.
Meanwhile, NMDC has applied to the government of Odisha seeking the granting of mining leases to NMDC for at least three iron ore blocks in the eastern Indian state to enable the miner to boost its total production.
NMDC Limited has suggested that the Odisha government should allocate at least three mining leases to it from among the seven iron ore mines that were closed down after their mining lease holders failed to pay the Supreme Court-mandated penalty for violations of mining laws within the deadline of December 31, 2017, the official said.