KIOCL Limited plea to CM to allot captive mines

The firm exports 50,000 tonnes of iron ore pellets to China after a gap of 29 months, says CMD.

KIOCL Ltd (formerly Kudremukh Iron Ore Company Limited) Chairman-cum-Managing Director Malay Chatterjee has said that the KIOCL Ltd that had stopped export of iron ore pellets since August 2011, has exported 50,000 tonnes of pellets to China after a gap of 29 months.  

Addressing a press meet here on Saturday, he said that three lakh tonnes of pellets will be exported to China within a period of three months. With this, the company will not only earn foreign exchange but also open up its export capability. The KIOCL Ltd will also earn positive Net Foreign Exchange  (NFE) to retain its 100 per cent EOU (export oriented units) status and continue to earn foreign exchange for the nation. 

“As the KIOCL Ltd had no captive mines and has been sourcing iron ore from NMDC’s Mines in Chattisgarh, it was incurring huge logistic cost coupled with levy of Distance Based Charge (DBC) by the Railways. As a result, the pellet prices were not competitive in the world market and the KIOCL Ltd has not been exporting since August 2011,” he said. 

Chatterjee said that he had met Chief Minister Siddaramaiah recently and had appraised him the current status of the company and had urged him to allot captive mines consequent on closure of Kudremukh mines. 

“We have asked the CM to expedite the process to finalise allotment of mines at Chikkanayakanahalli and Ramanadurg. The Central government has preliminarily cleared the proposal and the file has been pending before the State government for approval. The CM has also promised to look into allotment of ‘C’ category of mines to public sector enterprises.” 

He said that the KIOCL Ltd had signed an Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Andhra Pradesh government to explore Ananthpura mines. The boundary demarcation has been completed. “We hope that Ananthpura range has good reserves and we expect not less than 30 million tonne reserves,” he added. 

To a query on equipment and machineries at KIOCL unit in Kudremukh, the CMD said that it will be disposed off. “We had called for a global tender and the bidding has been given to Annam Steels for disposing the equipment and machineries.” 

On infrastructure at Kudremukh, the CMD said, “we are exploring opportunities on developing eco tourism with the help of the government, Jungle Lodges and ITDC. A DPR has been worked out by the KIOCL and a final decision on the same had to be taken. No new activity will be taken up in Kudremukh and the existing infrastructure will be utilised for promoting eco tourism.”