CIL plans foreign foray, identifies 6 mines

Two high level teams from the public sector coal behemoth have just returned from the two countries after identifying the properties.

They have been asked to do a due diligence on the identified properties.

The mines would mark CIL's foray into overseas mining.

CIL along with SAIL, RINL, NMDC and NTPC formed a special purpose vehicle (SPV) called International Coal Ventures Limited (ICVL) for identifying and developing mines overseas.

"Everything is at a nebulous stage and I would not like discuss the matter immediately. The teams have just returned and we are awaiting their reports," said CIL chairman P S Bhattacharya.

Sources, however, said, that the properties were mostly in the open cast (OC) categories and therefore could have large mining capacities.

CIL would shortly be sending proposals to the coal ministry on the identification and mining of the properties.

For each property, a different agreement will have to be entered into.

For going ahead with the overseas mining ventures, Letters of Interest (LoI) will have to be issued.

In some cases, confidentiality agreements (CAs) will need to be signed with the owners of the properties that would be mined.

The overseas coal mines will be acquired by the SPV to meet the rising domestic demands of the steel, power and other sectors.

ICVL has an authorised capital of Rs 10,000 crore and paid up equity of Rs 3500 crore of which SAIL and CIL will contribute Rs 1000 crore each and NMDC, NTPC and RINL Rs 500 crore each.

Currently, talks are at a final stage for identifying investment bankers for ICVL.

A high level meeting has been convened on June 21 to finalise future proceedings of ICVL.

Till now, 14 investment bankers have evinced interests in ICVL and are being interviewed.

Of this, six investment bankers may be selected.

CIL and its subsidiary Coal Videsh had been exploring opportunities for acquisition of coal properties in Mozambique, Indonesia, Zimbabwe, South Africa, Canada and Australia for some time.

In September 2007, a coal mining delegation of Indian coal mining companies under CIL went to Australia looking for partners for intensive mining in the underground (UG) and OC categories.

Two large OC mines having capacities ranging between 5 million and 15 million ton were identified then, Mount Arthur OCP controlled by BHP Billiton and Mount Owen at Extrata.

One UG mine, Grass Tree at Anglo, with capacity of 5 million ton, was also selected.