State-run MOIL today said its proposed joint ventures with Steel Authority of India (SAIL) and Rashtriya Ispat Nigam (RINL) for setting up facilities to make ferro alloy in Chhattisgarh and Andhra Pradesh are likely to be operational in the next fiscal.
An Environment Ministry panel in August has already given the green nod to MOIL's proposed Rs 400-crore joint venture with SAIL for setting up 1.06 lakh tonne per annum ferro alloy manufacturing facility in Chhattisgarh.
"We will start work soon on both the projects which are likely to go on stream in 2012-13," MOIL Chairman and Managing Director KJ Singh said.
Singh said talks were in the advanced stage for setting up the main furnace for the Chhattisgarh facility in JV with SAIL, while work was likely to commence soon on the proposed Rs 200 crore Andhra Pradesh unit in tie-up with RINL to produce 57,000 lakh tonnes of ferro alloy.
In both the ventures, MOIL, formerly Manganese Ore (India) Ltd, will have a 50% stake.
The firm, the largest domestic manganese producer, had separately signed MoUs with SAIL and RINL to set up the two facilities making ferro alloy, used in steel making for de-oxidising purposes.
MOIL operates 10 mines in the country -- six in the Nagpur and Bhandara districts of Maharashtra and four in Balaghat district of Madhya Pradesh.
The company meets about half of the total requirement of dioxide ore in the country. At present, MOIL's annual production amounts to around 11 lakh tonne.
