World's largest coal miner CIL is planning to acquire coking coal mines in Australia as it looks to supplement the requirement of country's metallurgical coal.
"The government of Australia has put on offer some coking coal blocks. Coal India (CIL) has initiated dialogues with the Australian government with regard to acquiring some mines there," a source privy to the development said.
However, the discussions are in a very preliminary stage.
"The discussions with the Australian government are underway for the last two to three months," the source said.
India's dependence on imports is particularly heavy on coking coal which is a vital ingredient in the steel making process.
Recognising limited availability of metallurgical coal as an 'disadvantage' for Indian steel sector, the draft steel policy aims at increasing supply of domestic coking coal to cut dependence on imports by half and a production of 300 million tonnes of the alloy by 2030-31.
The National Steel Policy aims at achieving increased domestic availability of washed coking coal so as to reduce import dependence on coking coal by 50 per cent by 2030-31.
Coal India accounts for over 80 per cent of the domestic coal production.
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