Coal India eyes mines in Africa, Indonesia

Coal India (CIL) has shortlisted Mozambique, Zimbabwe, Indonesia and Bangladesh for acquiring mines to fulfill the growing domestic demand of power plants.

"Steel, cement and power companies will heave a sigh of relief as the government plans to buy coal mines abroad," Minister of State for Coal Dasari Narayan Rao said today.

"We have shortlisted Mozambique, Zimbabwe, Indonesia and Bangladesh for acquiring mines and they are under consideration," Rao said on the sidelines of a coal seminar here.

The minister said a total of 35 million tonne of coal was likely to be imported in the financial year ending March 2007. The country purchased about the same amount last year, while it produced 407 million tonne of coal in 2005-06.

Power companies account for 70 per cent of country's total coal consumption. Rao said the mines would be acquired by CIL through its subsidiary Coal Videsh Ltd, which has been created for this purpose.

"Coal India wants to have its own mines abroad. However, it is yet to be approved by the Cabinet," he said. CIL Chairman P S Bhattacharya had last month said the company was already in talks with public sector companies "" Steel Authority of India and Rastriya Ispat Nigam Ltd "" for jointly acquiring coal blocks abroad.

The draft Vision Coal-2025 said the country would require 1,267 million tonne of coal by 2025 to sustain an 8 per cent growth rate. Of this, the total domestic production will account for 1,061 million tonne.

The government expects the demand would increase at the rate of 10 per cent in 10 years.