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source

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/nagpur/Manganese-Ore-India-Limited-looks-to-buy-stake-in-Australian-mine/articleshow/17932734.cms


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Manganese Ore India Limited looks to buy stake in Australian mine
TNN | Jan 8, 2013, 02.45 AM IST

NAGPUR: City-based public sector miner, Manganese Ore India Ltd (MOIL), is in talks with National Mineral Development Corporation (NMDC) to enter into a joint venture for overseas mining. Both MOIL and NMDC are PSUs under the Union ministry of steel. The latter has acquired 50% stake in Australia-based Legacy Iron Ore last year. Prompted by this, MOIL approached NMDC with a proposal to take part in the venture too.

Taking up part of the stake that NMDC has acquired from Legacy Iron Ore can be one of the modes of partnership, said MOIL's chairman-cum-managing director (CMD) G P Kundargi. He was talking to newspersons during a meet the press programme at Tilak Patrakar Bhavan. Kundargi said MOIL, the largest manganese producer in India, was looking forward to double its output by 2020. At the same time, reserves in India are depleting and only 20% of the domestic deposits are of high grade ore required in the steel making industry. This warrants expansion overseas. The iron ore mines of Legacy in Australia are also reported to have manganese deposits that have ignited MOIL's interest. However, there has been no response from NMDC yet as it is a recent acquisition and this company is still finaisling the modalities, said Kundargi. Manganese is a key ingredient in steel making.

Currently there is a gap of 0.5 million tonnes between demand and supply of high grade manganese ore. The demand is only going to increase in the coming years as the high grade deposits deplete. MOIL currently produces 1.1 million tonnes of manganese a year. It expects to raise the production by around 1.5 million tonnes by 2016-17 when the 12{+t}{+h} five year plan ends. Going by planning commission projection, the total domestic production is expected to reach 4.2 million tonnes by the end of five year plan, but then 2.5 million tonnes will still have to be imported to meet steel sector's demand, added a senior official accompanying Kundargi.

MOIL has received expressions of interest (EOIs) from other countries like Turkey, South Africa, and Brazil. However, the propositions do not seem to be worthwhile as the deposits are of a low grade which is in abundance in India, said Kundargi.