MOIL scouting manganese ore mines overseas

Manganese Ore India Ltd (MOIL), a miniratna public sector enterprise, is scouting for manganese ore mines overseas and is planning to diversify into coal in India.

“Some players from manganese-rich countries have approached us and we are evaluating the offers,” KJ Singh, chairman and managing director, MOIL.

The company plans to venture into coal in India to augment its asset base and use it for power generation in future.

“We are exploring some joint ventures for power and more ferroalloy production but nothing has been finalised so far,” said Singh.

The company plans to hit the capital market with an initial public offer by November-end.

Also, MOIL has been awarded 814.71 hectares (Ha) of land in Maharashtra for exploration of manganese ore.

“We cannot say anything about the reserves now, but we have applied for the prospecting licence and once we get the go-ahead we will start the prospecting work,” said KJ Singh, chairman and managing director, MOIL. He said the area is very large and the company expected good results from there.

MOIL, the biggest manganese ore company in India which accounts for half of country’s manganese production, has 10 mines spread across an area of 1,798 Ha. It has 22 million tonnes (mt) of proved reserves and 37.2 mt of measured mineral resources of manganese ore, taking its total reserves close to 60 mt.

Manganese ore is used in steelmaking. The ore is melted at high temperatures to form an alloy of iron and manganese. Then this alloy is fed to steel plants during production of steel. Last year the company produced 1 mt and this year it is targeting 1.15 mt. Its average per tonne production cost is Rs3,200, one of the lowest in the world, he said.