Date | Aug 28, 2016:

Coal India’s board has approved signing of a pact with African Exploration Mining & Finance Corporation SOC Ltd (AEMFC), owned by the South African government, for acquisition of coal mines in that country.

“The CIL board has accorded approval to the proposal for execution of MoU between CIL (Coal India) and African Exploration Mining & Finance Corporation, SOC Ltd (AEMFC), an entity owned by the government of South Africa for identification, acquisition, exploration, development and operation of coal assets in South Africa,” a recent report of the PSU said.

The decision of the CIL board, it said, has been communicated to AEMFC requesting them to finalise the date and venue of signing of the agreement.

Coal and Power Minister Piyush Goyal had earlier in the month informed Parliament that CIL is looking at entering into a pact with a South African government miner to jointly acquire coal mines in that country.

“Coal India Ltd (CIL) is further considering signing of an MoU with a mining company owned by the government of South Africa to jointly undertake identification, acquisition and operation of coal assets in South Africa,” Goyal had informed the Lok Sabha.

It had executed an MoU in 2011 with entities owned by provisional government of Limpopo, South Africa, for acquiring coal assets in that province, the minister had said.

The minister had further said that the Indian coal is not exported to international markets and like-to-like comparison of Indian coal with international prices cannot be done.

CIL, which accounts for over 80 per cent of the domestic coal production, is eyeing one billion tonnes of output by 2020.

(Source: http://indianexpress.com/)