Govt vetting proposal for JV to acquire overseas minerals

The government is looking at a proposal to set up a joint venture with participation from Nalco, HCL and MECL in a bid to acquire strategic mineral assets overseas, a government official said today.
The proposal was at a preformative stage, and has been approved by the Boards of all the three PSUs, he said.
"We are also looking to have a joint venture company with participation from Nalco, MECL and HCL which will look at exploration opportunities and acquiring of assets abroad," mines secretary Arun Kumar told reporters on the sidelines of Geological Board meeting here.
He also said though the JV would primarily look at strategic minerals, others would also be on the radar.

"There is a primary aim and if the primary aim for some reason is not making business sense for example or opportunities are not there, so they will not be constrained but our primary objective is to look at strategic minerals.
"We would like to focus on strategic minerals. Rare minerals are part of strategic minerals.," Kumar said.
According to official sources, the three PSUs have entered into an MoU with the objective of making the country self reliant in the areas of strategic minerals that are either not available in the country or not present in optimum quantity.