Indian government-owned iron ore miner NMDC Limited and government-owned steel producer Steel Authority of India Limited (SAIL) have formed a joint venture to explore and develop iron ore reserves for commercial sales and for internal consumption by steel mills belonging to SAIL, a senior Indian government official said on Monday, May 30.
The government official said that the joint venture called NMDC-SAIL Limited will be a wholly-owned subsidiary of the two companies in which NMDC will have a majority equity holding of 51 percent, while the 49 percent will be held by SAIL.
The official said that the joint venture will commence operations by developing new iron ore reserves in the central Indian state of Chhattisgarh and will subsequently expand operations across the country to iron ore blocks allocated to the respective joint venture partners or secured through joint biddings at auctions of mineral reserves held by the federal government.
SAIL currently operates seven captive iron ore mines with an aggregate capacity of 19 million mt per year, while NMDC produced 28 million mt during 2015-16.