By IANS,
Kolkata : Steel manufacturer JSW Bengal Steel has been allotted three reserves in West Bengal to source coal for its 10-million-tonne steel plant project at Salboni in the state, a top official said here Saturday.
“Hard coking coal has to be imported from Australia and China, and we will get soft coking coal from Kulti and Sitarampur reserves. From Ichhapur, we will be getting thermal coking coal,” the company’s joint managing director and chief executive Biswadeep Gupta said on the sidelines of a panel discussion organised by the Indo-American Chamber of Commerce.
At present, prospecting work is being carried out by the Geological Survey of India for these reserves.
He said coal in these reserves contains high methane gas and water, making continuous mining a problem due to geological disturbances.
Kulti and Sitarampur together have a reserve of 300 million tonnes of soft coking coal and Ichhapur has 110 million tonnes of thermal coking coal.
“We got one more reserve at Gourandih. Fifty percent of the total reserve there will be shared with Himachal-Emta,” Gupta said, adding: “This reserve has approximately 100-120 million tonnes of thermal coal”.
Himachal-Emta is a joint venture between the Himachal Pradesh government and the Kolkata-based Eastern Mineral and Trading Agency (Emta).