AP Mineral development corpn bags lease for mining coking coal from Brahmadiha opencast block

Amaravati, Jan 11 (PTI): The Andhra Pradesh MineralDevelopment Corporation on Monday bagged the lease for miningcoking coal, used in blast furnaces for manufacturing steel,from the Brahmadiha opencast block in Jharkhand.

Union Additional Secretary (Coal) M Nagaraju and APPrincipal Secretary (Mines) Gopal Krishna Dwivedi signed theallotment agreement in the presence of Union Home MinisterAmit Shah and Coal and Mines Minister Pralhad Joshi in NewDelhi.

APMDC was the only government entity to emerge asthe successful bidder among 14 others and Brahmadiha was theonly coking coal mine offered, sources in the MDC here said.

The revenue share to the government for the coalblock will be 41.75 per cent.

It is estimated that Brahmadiha has balanceextractable reserves of 1.92 million tonnes of coking coalspread over a 105 hectare area.

''The Mining Plan was prepared for 0.15 milliontonnes per annum, with a life of two years construction and 15years production.But we plan to mine 0.50 million tonnes perannum over 5-6 years, including the project constructionperiod,'' a senior MDC official told PTI.

The actual mining of coking coal was expected tobegin in two years.

Coking coal price has seen a dip over the years froman average of Rs 13,168 per tonne in 2017-18 to Rs 9,820 in2020-21 (till September).

The average import price has also fallen to Rs 9,648per tonne now from Rs 13,899 in 2018-19 financial year.

''We have taken all that into consideration andaccordingly worked out the financials.We expect an overallprofit of Rs 500 crore over the lease period,'' the MDCofficial said.PTI DBV BNWELCOME BNWELCOME