Mangaluru | Aug 31, 2017: KIOCL Ltd (formerly Kudremukh Iron Ore Company Ltd), which lacked a captive mine till now, will soon restart mining operations in Bellary.

Addressing shareholders at the 41st annual general meeting of the company on Thursday, MV Subba Rao, Chairman and Managing Director (additional charge) of KIOCL Ltd, said that mine plan preparation is on for the project.

The company’s annual report for 2016-17 said the Karnataka government has issued a Gazette notification on January 23 for reservation of 470.40 hectares of land in Devadari range of Sandur taluk in Bellary district in favour of KIOCL for mining of iron and manganese ore.

The report said the company has initiated action for obtaining statutory clearances from authorities for execution of the mining lease deed.

“The company will undertake development of iron ore mines and set up of beneficiation and pellet plant with capital investment of around ₹1,500 crore. Initially, the iron ore produced from the mine will be utilised in the existing pellet plant and blast furnace units at Mangaluru.

“ The company has plans to set up pellet plant at the mine site at a later stage and on reaching mine peak production level of 4 million tonnes per annum will optimise production of existing pellet plant and blast furnace units in Mangaluru,” the report said.

Production

Quoting Subba Rao, a press release said here on Thursday that KIOCL produced 1.460 million tonnes of pellets during 2016-17 as against 0.100 million tonnes in 2015-16.

The company sold 1.387 million tonnes of pellets during 2016-17 as against 0.409 million tonnes in the previous year.

(Source: http://www.thehindubusinessline.com/)