KOLKATA (miningweekly.com) – Indian manganese producer MOIL Limited, formerly Manganese Ore India Limited, had plans to open at least four new mines across the 597.44 ha under a prospecting licence granted by the provincial government of Maharasthra.

“Anticipating the grant of the prospecting licence, MOIL has earmarked $43-million for conducting geophysical studies and exploratory drilling and this would enable the company to open at least four new mines and expand existing mines already operational in the region,” chairperson and MD G P Kundargi said.

He said that the prospecting licence would be converted into a mining licence soon after the completion of preliminary studies, which would augment the company’s production of manganese ore, particularly at a time when the country was importing large quantities of ore.

According to MOIL, which accounts for over 51% of the country’s manganese production, India imported an average of 232 700 t/y of ore mainly for the purpose of blending with low- and medium-grade domestic ore as well as for conversion to ferroalloys for export to European Union markets.

Kundargi noted that the new prospecting licence across the Nagpur and Bhandara districts of western Maharasthra would enable MOIL to ramp up manganese ore production to 1.5-million tonnes a year by 2016 and to 2.2-million tonnes a year by 2020.

During 2012/13, MOIL ore production was pegged at 1.14-million tonnes, up 6.35% over the previous fiscal year.

Dwelling on the company’s tardy diversification plans, Kundargi said that MOIL had applied for six coal blocks for power generation and two for commercial coal mining, but added that the federal government had preferred to allot blocks only to companies already implanting power projects, while a decision on two blocks for commercial mining was still pending.

He said that MOIL had floated open-ended expressions of interest for the acquisition of manganese and other mineral assets overseas; however, no details on progress in such acquisition plans were available from the company.

Among the current ongoing projects, MOIL was implementing the sinking of high-speed vertical shafts at its primary Balaghat mines and sinking vertical shafts at the Chikla, Ukwa, Munsar and Gumgaon mines.