Jindal Steel & Power (JSPL) has finally got an approval from the national congress of Bolivia for the development of the El-Mutun iron ore mine and setting up a 1.7 million tonne per annum steel plant, the company informed the Bombay Stock Exchange today.The proposed plans had divided the Bolivian President and the legislature with the President claiming that the agreement with JSPL violated the nation's constitution.According to Bolivian rules, any natural resource contract with private firms have to be approved by the Bolivian Congress to make them a law before they are implemented. JSPL has got the approval now, and the agreement is legally effective.JSPL had won a bid in June 2006 to develop part of the El-Mutun mines. Subsequently, in July 2007, it signed a contract with the Bolivian government for developing the mines and setting up sponge iron and rolled steel projects with an investment of $2.1 billion. The contracted mine contains an estimated iron ore reserve of 20 billion tonne.
