Jindal Steel Bolivia, the steelmaking subsidiary of India-based Jindal Steel & Power Limited, has secured land to start its US$ 2.1 billion project in Bolivia. Accordingly, the company has resumed activities to develop the El Mutun iron ore deposit and steel plant project in Bolivia's Santa Cruz area.
According to a company press release, Evo Morales, President of Bolivia, has signed in the city of Santa Cruz a law ceding land that Jindal Steel Bolivia needs to develop a steel plant, a DRI plant and an iron ore pelletization plant.
The investments in El Mutun had been on hold because of non-availability of land since the company signed a contract in 2007 to mine the iron ore deposit and implement the steel project.
The Bolivian government has now provided about 3,000 acres of land for the project in addition to around 1,000 acres provided earlier, four fifths of the 5,000 acres of land required for the project.
In 2007, Jindal Steel & Power Limited had secured the development rights to El Mutun mines, one of the world's single biggest iron ore deposits with reserves of more than 40 billion mt. The 40-year contract that gave the company the right to mine about half of the reserves of iron ore also included setting up an integrated 1.7 million mt per annum steel plant, a 6 million mt per annum sponge iron plant and a 10 million mt per annum iron ore pellet plant in Bolivia. This will be the largest investment by an Indian company in South America and also the largest investment by a foreign company in a single project in Bolivia.
The plants are expected to become operational in the next three to four years and to be fully finished in eight years. The investment plan remains unchanged in the revised agreement that was signed in mid-August.