CIL may soon sign pact with South African Co for mines

State-run Cola India may soon enter into a pact with a South African government-owned company for acquisition of mines in that country.
"We are in touch with the South African Government. We have framework issue...We are sorting out the framework issue," Coal India Chairman-cum-Managing-Director S Bhattacharya told reporters here.
When asked about signing of the MoU, Bhattacharya said, "It depends upon (South) African government. Indian embassy is at it. It should happen quickly."
He said that the recent strike on September 2 has some impact on its subsidiary Mahanadi Coalfields Ltd. But some of the arms of CIL such as Central Coalfields Ltd (CCL) produced very well during the nation-wide stir.

"Strike had some impact in Mahanadi Coalfields. In WCL it was a holiday. In West Bengal there was no impact. In some areas in Jharkhand there was strike.....But CCL produced very well...And primarily you know no power plant today is either critical or supercritical," he said.
On e-auction of fossil fuel by Coal India, he said, "I would not give you the price information at this hour because the price is discovered through a process...Now we are planning to do beyond 80-90 million tonne but depending upon the offtake..."

When asked if CIL is in talks with Bangladesh for coal exports, he said, "that depends upon the demand. We are in touch to promote our market, that much I would say."

He further said, "We do have capex target which we are trying to maintain. Will be above Rs 7,000 crore certainly compared to last year. But we are also trying to see whether we can go for very meaningful kind of tehcnologies..."
CIL in its annual report said that it has approved signing of a pact with African Exploration Mining & Finance Corporation SOC Ltd (AEMFC), owned by the South African government, for acquisition of coal mines in that country.
The decision of the CIL board, it had said, has been communicated to AEMFC requesting them to finalise the date and venue of signing of the agreement.

Coal and Power Minister Piyush Goyal had earlier informed Parliament that CIL is looking at entering into a pact with a South African government miner to jointly acquire coal mines in that country.