"Perhaps time's definition of coal is diamond," said the famed Lebanese-American author Kahlil Gibran and true to that remark Coal India proved a virtual gold mine for the government in the year gone by.
The spectacular share sale of the world's largest coal miner ahead of Diwali added glitter and spark to the government's fund-raising plans through divestment in key PSUs.
While the country's largest ever IPO mopping up Rs 15,200 crore hogged the limelight, a terse battle between Coal and Environment Ministries after the latter declared 206 coal blocks in 9 coalfields as "no-go areas" for mining, and the government’s talk of action against coal mafias numbering roughly 10,000 also gave much fodder to green activists and the media.
Mergers and acquisitions of coal assets too made headlines throughout the year as firms remained in a frenzy to acquire assets in view of ever-widening demand supply gap of the dry fuel.
As far as Coal India IPO was concerned a total of 484 Foreign Institutional Investors were allotted its shares through the IPO which was oversubscribed 15.14 times.
FIIs submitted bids worth Rs 1.20 lakh crore for the mega IPO which led to over subscription of shares in that category by 24.70 times. Overall, the IPO, in which the government sold its 10 per cent stake in it, generated bids worth Rs 2.35 lakh crore.
Coal Minister Sriprakash Jaiswal termed Coal India as "Gold India."
But even enhanced production of coal, with CIL that meets over 85 per cent of domestic requirement likely to mine about 460 MT against last year's 431.5 MT, will not be able to meet demand for the black diamond, which prompted users to look for assets across the globe.
In one of the largest coal mine deals by an Indian group,the country's largest coal importer Adani Enterprises had in August bought the Australia-based Linc Energy's Galilee coal tenement in the Queensland for about Rs 12,600 crore.
It had also been awarded preferred proponent status for developing the Dudgeon point terminal in Macay, Queensland, which gives the Adani Group the right to develop a coal terminal with an annual capacity of 30-60 million tonnes (MT).
Adani Enterprises also entered into a $1.65 billion deal with the Indonesian government and its mining company PT Bukit Asam for setting up rail and port infrastructure in the island nation and get rights to source coal to India.
Besides, Anil Ambani Group firm Reliance Power has bought three coal mines in Indonesia. Another group, Essar had earlier this year bought Trinity Coal Corp in the US and is aggressive for a similar acquisition in Australia.
