State-owned mining major National Mineral Development Corporation( NMDC) is aiming to start commercial operations at the two coal blocks Rohne and Tokisud which was allotted last week in the next twelve months, a company official has said. Last week, the Ministry of Coal allotted Rohne and Tokishud North coal mines in the Hazaribagh district of Jharkhand to NMDC.
The company official said that the company plans to first develop the mines and then begin commercial operations at the mines in one year. The official also said that NMDC will be at advantage in terms of developing a common infrastructure for both mines as the distances between them is just about 10 km.
The Rohne coal block has extractable reserves of 191 million tonnes (mt) and planned production capacity of 8 million tonnes per annum whereas the Tokisud North coal block has extractable reserves of about 52 million tones of thermal coal and planned production capacity of 2.32 million tones per annum.
NMDC is setting up its first steel plant at Nagarnar with a capacity of 3 million tonnes per annum in the neighbouring state of Chhattisgarh, which will mark its first venture into the steel sector.
