Iron ore reserves to be reassessed for shelved SAIL project

The Geological Survey of India (GSI) and the government of the southern Indian province of Telengana have decided to carry out reassessment of the Bayyaram iron ore reserves in the region to woo back Indian state-owned steelmaker Steel Authority of India Limited (SAIL) in setting up an integrated steel plant, an official in the government told SteelOrbis on Monday, February 16.
 
A team of officials from SAIL held meetings with the provincial government last week and visited the location of the iron ore reserves and will issue a fresh feasibility report once the reassessment report of the reserves has been completed, he said.
 
Last month, SAIL shelved plans for a 3 million mt per year integrated steel plant in Telengana on the grounds that the region does not have minimum iron ore reserves of 200 million mt, which would assure the steel producer a minimum linkage of 10 million mt of raw material for 20 years. The provincial government had assured the company a raw material linkage of 90 million mt of iron ore reserves which SAIL considered unviable.