The country’s largest miner Coal India may look at diversification of other metals like copper and nickel through overseas mines, its Director (Marketing), SN Prasad, said.
According to him, the company is firming up such plans and geographies like Africa.
“We are finalising plans. We have the core competencies,” he told reporters on the sidelines of a coal conference organised by ‘mjunction’. He, however, did not elaborate further.
In an earlier instance, the company’s African subsidiary, Coal India Africana Limitada (CIAL), was granted prospecting licences for two leaseholds in Mozambique.
However, it surrendered the licences, stating that these leasehold areas were not techno-economically viable for commercial mining.
Coal India, along with a consortium of Fertilizer Corporation of India Ltd (FCIL), GAIL and Rashtriya Chemicals and Fertilizers, is also looking to revive the sick plant of FCIL’s Talcher unit.
The JV company, named Talcher Fertilizers Ltd (TFL), has been formed to set up an ammonia-urea plant, Prasad said.