On July 3, India-based steelmaker Jindal Steel and Power Ltd (JSPL) announced that it expects to earn about INR 7.65 billion ($0.17 billion) in the current fiscal year by selling iron ore from its Bolivian mine.
In 2007, Jindal Steel Bolivia, a JSPL subsidiary, had secured the development rights for the El-Mutun iron ore mine in Bolivia for 40 years. El-Mutun has the biggest iron ore deposits in the world and has 20 billion mt in reserves.
JSPL started shipments from the Bolivian mine as of July 1 and it is hoping to sell one million mt of iron ore from the mine in the remaining period of the year.
JSPL is also setting up an integrated 1.7 million mt per year steel plant, a 6 million mt per year sponge iron plant and a 10 million mt per year iron ore pellet plant in Bolivia with an investment of $ 2.1 billion. The El-Mutun mine will continue to export ore even after JSPL's steel plant starts operations since one million mt of iron ore will suffice to feed a steel plant of the capacity in question.
Jindal's proposed investment in Bolivia is so far the largest announced by any Indian company in South America and also the largest investment by a foreign firm in a single project in Bolivia.