JB Group to develop Mongolian coal mines

The JB Group, a $3 billion diversified business house, is planning to invest $350 million (Rs 1,376 crore) in Mongolia to develop and utilise the coal mines acquired by the company in the country.

The group is also planning to invest about Rs 1,500 crore in various business segments in India during the current financial year.

Addressing a press meet in Mumbai today, JB Group executives said the group had acquired rights for coal mining in a 20 sq km area at Erdos City in inner Mongolia.

The area has a proven coal reserve of about 800 million tonnes. The company is setting up a methanol refinery in the region to utilise the coal reserves.

The plant, likely to take off by late 2008, will have an initial production capacity of 3,00,000 tonnes.

Two years ago, the company bagged a coal mining and methanol refining lease in the region, to become the first Indian company to enter the region, known for its large coal reserves.

The group, set up in Surat, Gujarat, in 1965, mainly operates in China, India, and the West Asia in businesses such as property and real estate, mining, oil and gas, alternate energy, logistics, diamonds and jewellery.

According to Jatin Chutke, vice-president, the 1,500-crore investment planned in India will include setting up of an integrated steel plant in South, mining of metals and minerals such as limestone, bauxite and manganese and setting up of a hotel in Goa.

The group also plans to put up an aluminium plant and a coal to methanol refinery in the country. It is in the process of identifying the prospective mining blocks in Karnataka, Maharashtra and Rajastan for iron ore, bauxite mines and coal mines.

"We are planning to replicate our successful Chinese business model in India," he said.

The company is also planning to set up a coal to methanol refinery in Indonesia. The group has acquired five operating open pit coal mines in the East Kalimantan and Northern Indonesia islands with a total mining area of about 30,000 hectares.