Jindal Steel & Power (JSPL) has received the official communication from the government of Odisha for the grant of mining lease of the Kasia Iron and Dolomite Mine situated in the state.
JSPL has been declared as the preferred bidder for the mine at a premium of 118.10 percent.
The Kasia Mine has a large resource of 278 million tonne of iron ore and it consists of an average Fe grade of approximately 62.5 percent. The Mine has favourable lumps to the fine ratio of 20:80.
The mine has an environmental clearance (EC) of 7.5 million tpa. The e-auction for Kasia Iron and Dolomite Mineral Block was held on 18 September 2021.
The Kasia iron ore mine was earlier owned and operated by Essel Mining & Industries. JSPL can resume operations in a short period of time enhancing backward integration for the company in FY22. This large and high-quality captive iron ore mine provides significant raw material security to JSPL.
Kasia is a high Fe and low alumina mine, which is located only 17 km away from Barbil pellet plant. The company has a current crude steel capacity of around nine million tpa and plans to expand the capacity to around 16 million tpa by FY25.
The access to this large captive iron ore source, therefore, provides a massive strategic advantage to the company. The company already has plans to use a slurry pipeline from the Barbil region to Angul which will further reduce the logistics cost.
There would not be any significant capex requirement, except for statutory payment, as the mine was already operational.