KOLKATA (miningweekly.com) – Indian State-run iron-ore miner NMDC will mark its maiden foray into gold mining, having bagged a gold mine in the southern province of Andhra Pradesh.
NDMC was able to secure the rights to develop and produce from the gold mine emerging as the highest bidder at the auction pipping majors like Vedanta and Adani Group, company officials said.
The government will determine the timelines to achieve various development and production parameters, while NMDC has estimated that it would require a capital expenditure of about $66-million in phases to bring the asset into production.
The miner has estimated that the total recoverable precious metal would be around 8.5 t from a mining area spread across 263 ha, with NMDC committing to share about 38% of the revenues with the Indian government.
NMDC is expected to bring the mine into production with the next two years.
The foray into gold mining is part of NMDC’s goal to evolve as a diversified mining company by adding other mineral assets to its existing domestic business portfolio of iron-ore mining.
The company has floated an equal joint venture (JV) with Kopano Logistics Services to explore and develop mineral assets in South Africa.
The board meeting of the JV held recently in India approved preliminary investments in scouting for mineral assets in South Africa with focus on prime grade coal and coking coal assets in the country.
Officials here said that being one of the largest suppliers of iron-ore to domestic steel plants, NMDC, with coking coal assets in South Africa, is aiming to become a consolidated raw material supplier to domestic steel mills, both iron-ore, manganese and coking coal sourced from acquired assets in South Africa.