CIL sees reserves at 25 billion tonne in the next three years

Coal India Ltd’s (CIL) reserves are not going to get depleted in another 17 years as alleged by Greenpeace, its chairman Narsing Rao claimed on Tuesday.

He said they would rise to 25 billion tonne in three years.

The green activist body on Monday said that the public sector miner’s 18.2 billion tonne extractable coal reserves could get over in 17 years.

It claimed that the 18,2 billion tonne reserve is as per the internationally accepted United Nations Framework Classifications (UNFC), which has been adopted by CIL in 2011 but not properly disclosed to investors while its prospectus at the time of going for the IPO in 2010 disclosed the higher 22.33 billion tonne estimated under Indian standard procedures code.

“Every year since 2011, we have been adding more than 2.2 billion tonne of coal reserve. So, the reserve figure now would come to 25 billion tonne in three years. This way we would continue adding more reserve as we keep developing new mines,” Rao said.

Rao accepted that CIL hasn’t disclosed to the stock exchange that the change in the extractable reserve figure due to change in mode of calculation from ISP to UNFC code, saying such change wasn’t material.

“We didn’t consider it to be a significant development to be reported to the stock exchange,” Rao said during a hurriedly called press conference to air Coal India’s displeasure over the Greenpeace report.

Rao termed the green activist’s effort to highlight issues, which otherwise would have only bothered financial investors, as a ‘’sinister design’’.

“All this (is being done) so that coal mines should be closed and we should only depend on imported coal. It is the only design that I can understand,” Rao said.