KOLKATA (miningweekly.com) – India’s largest iron-ore miner, NMDC Limited, would enter into a collaboration pact with ASX-listed Environmental Clean Technologies (ECT) for research and development (R&D) on upgrading low-grade iron-ore and coal.
The NMDC-ECT collaboration would aim to further develop ECT’s patented Matmor technology as an alternative to the traditional steelmaking process through the use of lignite as an alternative to metallurgical coal and for upgrading low-grade ore not suitable for use in most Indian blast furnaces, a NMDC official said.
The pact between the two companies would entail the use of various grades of iron-ore from NMDC mines and the use of lignite in laboratory scale R&D using Matmor technology at ECT’s facilities, the official added.
He said that according to Melbourne-based ECT, Matmor was the only available technology for use of lignite as a heat source in specifically designed vertical furnaces ensuring optimal usage of the brown coal.
The NMDC-ECT tie-up was part of the Indian miner’s global outreach programme to develop alternatives to metallurgical coal, which was in short supply in the country, and to ultimately reduce dependency on imported coking coal.
Towards this end, NMDC had also signed a memorandum of understanding with US-based Carbonite Acquisitions to develop technologies for conversion of noncoking coal to coking coal, the official said.
On the domestic front, NMDC would invest $145-million to double the capacity of its Kumaraswamy iron-ore mines in the southern Indian province of Karnataka to 14-million tons a year. Another $100-million of investments had been put into play to develop the 11B mine at its existing iron-ore mining project at Bailadila in the central Indian province of Chhattisgarh, which would add 7-million tons a year to the company’s aggregate production.
NMDC was focusing on expansion of its Bellary and Karnataka mines in Karnataka as its existing operations fell under “Category A” ranking, indicating zero violation of mining and environmental laws, which had been an issue that had led to a banning on mining in the province a few years earlier.