Jindal Steel & Power secures mining lease of Kasia iron ore mine

Jindal Steel & Power Limited (JSPL) has secured the mining lease of the Kasia iron ore mine in Odisha from the state government.

The company has been declared by the Odisha government as the preferred bidder for the iron and dolomite mine at a premium of 118.1%.

According to Jindal Steel & Power, the Kasia iron ore mine has a resource of 278 million tonnes of iron ore. It consists of an average Fe grade of around 62.5%.

The iron ore mine is located 17km away from the company’s Barbil pellet plant.

The Kasia iron and dolomite mine has favorable lumps to the fine ratio of 20:80 and has environmental clearance (EC) in place for 7.5 metric tons per annum.

Previously, the Kasia iron ore mine was owned and operated by Essel Mining & Industries.

Jindal Steel & Power secures mining lease of Kasia iron ore mine in Odisha. Photo courtesy of Bishnu Sarangi from Pixabay.

Jindal Steel & Power said that it can resume operations in a short period of time by improving backward integration in the current financial year itself. The captive iron ore mine is expected to provide considerable raw material security to the company.

VR Sharma — Managing Director of Jindal Steel & Power said: “Kasia is a high Fe and low alumina mine, which is located only 17 km away from our Barbil pellet plant. The company has a current crude steel capacity of around ~9 MTPA and plans to expand the capacity to ~16 MTPA by FY25.

“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.”