Decision on JV with ArcelorMittal by month-end: NMDC

The proposed joint venture between NMDC and ArcelorMittal is likely to take a concrete shape at a meeting scheduled for the last week of this month here, chairman and managing director of the country's largest iron ore company Rana Som said today.

"There is lot of progress on the issue. We want to move forward as fast as possible. We have a meeting with the Mittals in the last week of this month in Hyderabad. We will take a final call on it at that meeting," Som told PTI here.

National Mineral Development Corporation (NMDC) and the world’s largest steel-maker ArcelorMittal had earleir decided to develop a mining field in the West African nation of Senegal and form a joint venture to carry out the project. According to reports, ArcelorMittal already has control over the Faleme iron ore mines in Senegal with an estimated reserves of 750 million tonne iron ore.

Stating that NMDC is aggressively looking for foreign acquisitions, Som said it is necessary to have support of a big company while going in for overseas acquisitions.

"If you are trying to acquire ten properties in a foreign country, you will end up settling with just one. If you are working with a large company the decisionmaking will be easier, risks will be lesser and cost will be cheaper," Som said justifying the decision to go with ArcelorMittal.

Speaking about the tie-up with Nippon Steel, he said the Japanese steel major and four other Japanese steel companies have been NMDC customers for four decades now. "We want a high quality steel producer as our partner for our proposed Karnataka steel plant. So we approached Nippon Steel and are awaiting their response," he said, adding, however, the discussions are still at an initial stage.

He further said they want to use superior technology for manufacturing high grade steel and should have advantage from other steel-makers in terms of quality.

Replying to a query on the impact on ore excavation during the two day-bandh called by the Maoists recently, the NMDC chief said the evacuation of the ore was affected 10-15 per cent. He, however, said dispatches from the Bailadilla mines in Chhattisgarh was not impacted.