India’s Rashtriya Ispat Nigam Limited (RINL) is back seeking captive iron ore assets now that its merger with iron ore miner NMDC Limited has not been granted approval by the Indian government, a company official said on Thursday, March 24.
The official said that RINL is eyeing the Kukunoor iron ore reserves in the Western Godavari district, while the government of India’s Andhra Pradesh state has recommended grant of the reserves to the steel producer and currently final approval is being awaited from the federal government.
RINL, which operates a stand-alone 6.3 million mt per year steel mill in the southern Indian port town of Vishakhapatnam without any captive iron ore mine, had been planning a merger with iron ore miner NMDC Limited to ensure raw material security, the official said.
However, with the federal government not warming up to the merger proposal, RINL has been compelled to seek iron ore reserves as the company’s next phase plan to ramp up production capacity to 10 million mt per year is entirely dependent on ensuring raw material security, the official added.