Mines & Steel Minister Shri Narendra Singh Tomar Chairs Consultative Committee on Steel

The Union Minister for Steel and Mines, Shri Narendra Singh Tomar chaired the first meeting of the Parliamentary Consultative Committee of Ministry of Steel held here yesterday. In the meeting, which revolved around the functioning of National Mineral Development Corporation (NMDC), Shri Tomar apprised the Committee that in a recent review meeting held with NMDC, he has directed the PSU to accelerate their production of iron ore to meet the requirement of domestic steel industry. He informed the members that NMDC will raise its production of iron ore to 75 million tonnes per annum (MTPA) by the year 2018-19. He also informed that NMDC plans to enter into exploration in India to build knowledge regarding reserves of various minerals in the country. Minister asked NMDC to address each of the issues raised by members.

In a presentation made before the committee, Chairman NMDC Mr N Kothari mentioned about NMDC's plan to develop a new 7MT mine in Chhattisgarh, namely, Deposit 11B. This was in addition to NMDC's diamond mine at Panna in Madhya Pradesh with a capacity of 1 lakh carats per year, one of its kind in India. He spoke about NMDC's plan to venture into the steel sector, by setting up a 3 MTPA integrated steel plant at Nagarnar, Chhattisgarh, in addition to setting up another integrated Steel Plant in Bellary, Karnataka. The company is also coming up with pellet plants at Chhattisgarh and Karnataka utilising the slimes earlier classified as rejects. The company is also diversifying into mining of limestone, magnesite, coal and high value minerals. NMDC has set up a Business Development Department to acquire overseas mining assets, especially in the field of iron ore, manganese and fertilizer minerals, and has acquired first mineral asset of iron ore abroad, that is, Legacy Iron Ore Limited, Australia where its stake is 74.8%. NMDC contributed Rs. 8952 crore to the Central Government exchequer and Rs. 932 crore to the State Government exchequer for the year 2013-14 in form of corporate sales tax. NMDC produced and dispatched more than 30 MT of iron ore, and plans to produce about 32 MT in FY2014-15.

Committee members discussed various issues concerning NMDC's performance and CSR activities, including its contribution in the area of healthcare, education, employment, training, skill development and infrastructure development. The members agreed that more exploration was required in bauxite, granite, manganese, gold etc in different parts of the country. They underscored the importance of opening closed mines and providing leases to those which can be made operational. They called for greater synergy in the functioning of Ministries of Steel, Mines and Coal.

Minister of State for Steel and Mines, Shri Vishnu Deo Sai, Members of the Parliament, Shri M. Chandrakashi, Shri Janardhan Singh Sigriwal, Shri Mahender Nath Pandey, Shri Sher Singh Ghubaya, Shri Shyama Charan Pandey, Shri Laxman Giluwa and Smt. G Sudharani from Lok Sabha and Shri Tapan Kumar Sen from Rajya Sabha were present on the occasion. Secretary, Ministry of Steel, Shri Rakesh Singh and senior officials from the Ministry, NMDC and other Steel PSUs were also present in the meeting.

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