The public sector undertaking, KIOCL Ltd, plans to extend the pellet manufacturing facility to other companies that supply raw material (iron ore) to KIOCL and repurchase the pellets.
Addressing media persons in Mangaluru on Friday, T Saminathan, Chairman and Managing Director of KIOCL Ltd, said it will take the manufacturing margin and sell the pellets back to the company that supplied iron ore.
Stating that KIOCL is in talks with two companies in Oman and South Korea, he said the company is planning to execute this project in three-six months.
Nearly 30-40 per cent of the pellet manufacturing unit’s capacity in Mangaluru can be used under this project, he said.
Asked about the contribution of this project to the company’s total revenue, he said this project is expected to contribute around 30 per cent of the company’s total revenue. “We are minimising our risk with this concept. Our average cost of production will come down if we increase our production with this arrangement,” he said.
Devadari mine
To a query on the KIOCL’s plans for Devadari iron ore mine at Sandur taluk of Ballari district, Saminathan said the company has secured stage-1/ in-principle forest and environmental clearance from the Union Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change. This mine has a capacity of 2 million tonnes per annum of iron ore.
Asked about the timeframe for starting mining operations at Devadari, he said the company hopes to get the stage-2 clearance for the project by the end of March 2022. The company can start mining operations at Devadari by March 2023 on getting the stage-2 approval by March 2022.
Dividend
Saminathan said the 45th annual general meeting of KIOCL Ltd has approved the final dividend of ₹1.64 per equity share on a face value of ₹10 each. The total dividend for the financial year ended March 31 amounts to ₹99.67 crore, he added.