Coal India talking to collaborators abroad for acquiring critical mineral processing techonolgy

KOLKATA OCTOBER 30, 2025 ,dmanewsdesk : Coal India has been in discussion with potential collaborators abroad who can give the Navratna company the required value processing technology in the aftermath of its acquiring critical minerals in overseas nations, union coal secretary Mr Vikram Dev Dutt said on Thursday after inaugurating the four-day 11th International Mining, Equipment & Minerals Exhibition (IME) at the Biswa Bangla Mela ground here.

Disclosing that Coal India Ltd is in the lookout for opportunities to acquire critical minerals abroad in alliance with the ministry of mines, Mr Dutt pointed out that the question of refining the critical minerals post acquisition would come in new course as the value chain of the critical minerals requires to be developed.

“ We’re working on that,” Mr Dutt told newsmen at Science City pavillion opposite the Mela Ground. In fact, apart from coal, CIL has undertaken an exercise to increasingly look at other national imperatives like critical minerals.

“The companies have been participating in the auctions for critical mineral blocks;  both CIL and Neyville ( Lignite) have won some critical mineral blocks,” the coal secretary pointed out.

Coal India, he said, has a perspective  plan for diversification. Beyond coal production, CIL has fast been becoming an energy company also. So, there are a lot of solar projects which are on the anvil. “We have set an ambitious target of 10 MW of generation by Coal India alone by 2030 and if we look at all the coal companies put together, it’s about more than 21 gigawats by 2030,” Mr Dutt added.

“Neyville Lignite is one of the early movers in this phase. In fact, they are the first PSU in the govt sector to achieve 1 gigawat of solar energy. So, there is a lot of activity in that space,” he revealed. Apart from solar, there are some pithead thermal plants which both CIL and Neyville have been operating.

To a question on the outlook of India’s coal production this year in both Coal India and other commercial mines, the coal secretary stated that the coal production ‘continues to be robust.” India crossed the milestone of more than one million tonnes(MTPA) not only of production but also of supply last year.

“And this year of course , in the first half, the demand has been muted because the power generation has domestically been down by more than 4 per cent. So we are sitting on the record stocks, both at the pit head as well as thermal power plants. So, we expect to be close to our production targets overall for the sector, both Coal India and other commercial mining entities,” he said.

Elaborating on another question on listing of stocks of BCCL and CMPDL, the two CIL subsidiaries, Mr Dutt stated that so far as the two CIL subsidiaries are concerned, the draft red herring prospectus was already filed with SEBI at May end and SEBI has approved both of them in September.

“Consequently, the road chosen for BCCL is currently at an advanced stage, phase wise reaching out to different investors. A lot of healthy interest is there. We expect to finish the road shows by end of this month and go ahead with the listing,” the coal secretary concluded.