Coal India keen on developing abandoned mines

September 20th, 2011 - 8:44 pm ICT by IANS  

Kolkata, Sep 20 (IANS) World’s largest coal miner Coal India Limited (CIL) Tuesday said it will go ahead with developing its abandoned mines in partnership with global firms if the second round of tenders, which is now under way, gets a positive response.

The Maharatna firm is seeking joint venture arrangements to develop some 18 old mines with a total reserve of 1.6 billion tonnes of high-quality coking and thermal coal.

It had sought preliminary expressions of interest and had short-listed 10 companies.

But since the company drew no response from them in the first round of tendering, it was forced to relax some conditions in the second phase.

“The next round of tenders that we have floated or are floating, if it gets some positive responses, then for those many number of mines, we will go ahead,” CIL chairman N.C. Jha told reporters on the sidelines of the company’s 37th Annual General Meeting (AGM).

“Because most of the (abandoned) mines are underground mines, bidders most probably thought it is not proving to be remunerative. The entire risk of investment had to be taken. That is why they have not shown any interest (in the first round of tendering). But they have not completely withdrawn from it,” he added.

Jha said the company had abandoned those mines because of safety risks.

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