RINL to develop its 1st captive iron ore mine

Public sector RINL (also known as Vizag Steel) will develop its first captive iron ore mine in Rajasthan soon, an official of the company said on Saturday.

"We have received the letter of intent (LoI) from the government for developing a low-grade iron ore mine in Rajasthan," Director (Finance) P Madhusudan said.

This would be the first captive mine of RINL, he said on the sidelines of the annual general meeting of the Refractory Manufacturers' Association here.

He said the mine had a reserves potential of 230-250 million tonnes spread over 900 hectares and RINL would shortly develop it.

RINL had applied for 26 mines across the country, of which four were in Andhra Pradesh.

So far, RINL had been sourcing iron ore from NMDC.

Turnaround in 2 years
On the steel sector scenario, he said margins were under pressure and demand would remain subdued for some time.

"We hope a turnaround will happen in the next one to two years," Madhusudan said.

RINL had a total steel production capacity of six million tonnes a year.