India keen to buy foreign coking coal assets: Piyush Goyal

Coal India has surrendered mining licenses in Mozambique, and doesn't own any foreign coal assets

Coal India Ltd, the world's top coal miner, plans to acquire coking coal assets abroad as India lacks technology to economically develop local reserves, Coal Minister Piyush Goyal said.

"The recent spurt in global coal prices, particularly for coking coal, is expected to create an encouraging scenario for such acquisition process," Goyal told Parliament in a written reply.

Coking coal futures on the Singapore Commodity Exchange soared in the second half of 2016 as top consumer China clamped down on local production as part of a campaign against pollution.

They have since dropped by about 40 per cent to around $170 a tonne, but are still double what they were in mid-2016.

Coal India has surrendered two mining licenses in Mozambique, and currently does not own any foreign coal assets, he said.