SAIL's mining expansion plan: Steel Minister Dharmendra Pradhan chairs meeting

Union Steel Minister Dharmendra Pradhan on Tuesday chaired a meeting on mining expansion plans of state-owned SAIL which looks to more than double its steel-making capacity to 50 MTPA by 2030.

Steel Authority of India Ltd (SAIL), under the Ministry of Steel, is the country's largest steel making company with an annual capacity of over 21 million tonnes (MT). Expanding capacity would require an additional amount of raw materials.

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"HSM @dpradhanbjp along with Hon. MoS @fskulaste held a meeting with senior officials of @SteelMinIndia and @SAILsteel on the mining expansion plan of SAIL," Ministry of Steel said in a Tweet.

This will also enhance availability of raw material in the open market and will have a positive bearing on raw material prices, the ministry said in another Tweet.

The officials have been advised to prepare a detailed road map on significantly ramping up production, evacuation and sale of dump and fines, it said.

In a separate Tweet, the Ministry of Steel said, "HSM directed that @SAILsteel must leave no stone unturned to leverage this opportunity offered by mining policy reforms to sell dump and fines in the open market for its monetisation."

As per available information, during 2019-20, the company's captive mines produced about 29.28 MT of iron ore -- a key raw material used in production of steel. The steel maker has five integrated steel plants and over 20 captive mines spread across Jharkhand, Odisha, Chhattisgarh and West Bengal.

Raw material security holds significance for the steelmaker as it has plans to more than double its capacity to 50 MTPA by 2030.