“NMDC will increase production by more than 50% in three to four years.”

Iron ore mining showed a sharp growth on a yearly basis in FY21 on the back of robust demand from the steel sector due to the sharp recovery in domestic as well as global demand. And NMDC was well positioned to take advantage of it. Despite Donimalai mine remaining shut and heavy rains hampering mining activities in Chhattisgarh, the stateowned miner was able to post significant growth in operations in FY21. And with the resumption in mining at Donimalai, 10 mtpa of upcoming beneficiation facilities and with new reforms in mining rules, NMDC is set for brighter days ahead. Sumit Deb, Chairman-cum-Managing Director of NMDC spoke to Ritwik Sinha of Steel Insights on various opportunities for capacity enhancement and efficiency improvements.

NMDC has decided to prioritise its operational capabilities and strategies for better performance. What exactly are the strategies that are in your mind?

We are committed to retain our position as the leading iron ore miner in the country. We have set a target to increase the production capacity from 36 million tons a year in FY21 to 67 million tons a year by FY25 through expansion of the existing mines and acquisition of new green/brown field projects.

Odisha and Jharkhand are the target states for acquisition of new projects considering that the two states lie in the vicinity of a zone that contributes to more than 40 percent of the total crude steel capacity of the country. NMDC envisages to increase production from existing mines through technology, process improvement and infrastructure development.

We are already in the process of infrastructure development to achieve the target such as construction of additional screening and crucial plants to increase the processing capacity, installation of Rapid Wagon Loading System to increase loading capacity and construction of slurry pipeline and doubling of rail line between its project location to nearest port to increase the evacuation capacity.

NMDC has already commenced its journey in technology & process improvement and implemented solutions across exploration and resource estimation, mining operations and administration.

Some of key existing and upcoming initiatives include implementation of ERP, mine transport surveillance system, fleet management system, vision enhancement system, automatic sampler, conveyor belt monitoring system, etc. These technological interventions shall enable us to monitor the performance in real time and take better informed decisions.

Additionally, to cater to the demand of the customer during lean periods such as monsoon and during any obstructions in evacuation, we are planning to develop intermediate stockpile to ensure uninterrupted supply of ore to the customers. We have already developed one Stockpile in Kumarmarenga near Jagdalpur and the other one is under construction.

We are confident that NMDC will increase the production by 15-20 percent in next financial year through performance improvement and by more than 50 percent in three to four years through use of technology, infrastructure development and expansion.

All the mining leases of iron ore mines in Chhattisgarh and Karnataka have been extended. Kindly share your production and growth plans for these mines.

Yes, we are grateful to the Governments of Chhattisgarh and Karnataka for extension of the leases in their respective states. I believe it is the goodwill we enjoy with both the Governments as well as the people of the project locations. We are also grateful to the Ministry of Steel as well as Ministry of Mines for their interventions in operationalisation of Donimalai Mine in Karnataka.

We have envisaged increasing the production capacity of these mines by 86 percent from existing 36 mtpa to 67 mtpa in FY30. We have already commenced development of infrastructure and working on technology interventions required to achieve the target.

Any plans of diversifying into mining of any other mineral apart from iron ore and diamond?

Yes, we do have plans to expand horizontally into other minerals apart from iron ore and diamond, vertically into pellet as well as geographically into other countries. NMDC has prepared a report highlighting the minerals and geographies that it intends to target. To shortlist the minerals, apart from associated profitability and risks and future trends, criticality of the mineral for the nation is a key factor.

We have already been allocated two coal deposits in Jharkhand namely Tokisud and Rohne by the Government of India. NMDC is in process to appoint MDO for Tokisud with a target to start the operation in next 5-6 months.