Coal Videsh Ltd (CVL) Board, the 100 per cent subsidiary of state owned coal producer Coal India Ltd (CIL), has sent a team to Indonesia to review four mining blocks having reserves worth 150 million tons (mnt).
The team left for Indonesia on August 23, and the deal could happen depending on their feedback, CIL chairman Partha S Bhattacharyya said.
CIL was looking for mining and exploration licenses in Indonesia. It was taking two separate routes for its international ventures; one was the government-to-government route (G2G), and the other was the merchant-banking route.
"We have already identified virgin blocks in Mozambique where we are going through G2G negotiations", Bhattacharyya said.
The two countries had signed an agreement in May 2006 to promote bilateral cooperation in the field of coal resources.
For Indonesia, CIL had empanelled around 10 merchant bankers. For these four blocks, it would be in talks with licensees in that country.
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Bhattacharyya did not divulge details about the cost of acquiring those blocks.
India currently imported around 40mnt of coal.
Demand was expected to touch about 2 billion tons by the year by 2031-32, around five times the current rate of extraction.
Overseas acquisitions and mining licenses could help to bridge the demand-supply gap in the domestic market.
It planned an investement of Rs 3200 crore this fiscal, including upto Rs 2000 crore on washeries under the public-private partnership format.
More than 15 washeries with a total capacity of 97mnt were planned during the fiscal, all managed by private parties, Bhattacharyya said.