The Hindu Business Line : Gujarat NRE’s Australian arm to produce 2.5 mtpa of hard coking coal

Gujarat NRE Minerals Ltd, the Australian subsidiary of Gujarat NRE Coke Ltd, is in the final stages of commissioning of long-wall mining at its Wongawilli hard coking-coal mine near Wollongong in New South Wales, to take the company’s total production to 2.5 million tonnes per annum (MTPA) of hard coking-coal.

Long-wall mining is a form of underground coal mining where a long wall of coal is mined in a single slice to increase the productivity of coal mining. The long-wall panel (the block of coal being mined) is typically 100 to 350 m wide. As a result, raw coal production at NRE Wongawilli mine will be expanded to 1.5 mt , up from 1.79 lakh tonnes during 2008-09, said Mr Arun Kumar Jagatramka, Chairman of the subsidiary.

The opening of the long-wall was well-timed with an increase in demand for Australian hard coking-coal, especially from the Indian market. The long-wall mining equipment, which last operated in March 2007, has been successfully refurbished with a full overhaul and re-installed at the new long-wall face.

Gujarat NRE Minerals bought the Elouera mine from BHP Billiton on December 21, 2007, with the company resuming coal production in May 2008.

Mr Jagatramka said that the ability of Gujarat NRE’s is what the company can offer to the shareholders of another Australian company, Rey Resources – which the Indian miner has made a bid to takeover recently – in their early-stage Canning Basin coal project. Gujarat NRE Coke Ltd, India’s largest independent producer of Low Ash Metallurgical Coke (LAMC), also plans to set up a greenfield coke plant in Andhra Pradesh and further brownfield expansions at Gujarat and Karnataka, thereby taking the total coke making capacity to 4 million tonnes over the next 3-5 years.

More Stories on : Overseas Investments | Coke & Metalurgical Coke

Article E-Mail :: Comment :: Syndication :: Printer Friendly Page