Private captive, commercial coal mines cross 140 MT production in FY24

Out of the total production of 147.2 MT, the power sector captive mines produced around 121.3 MT, captive mines of the non-power sector produced 8.4 MT

Coal production from mines awarded to private miners for captive (self use) and commercial purposes touched 147 million tonnes (MT) in financial year 2023-24 (FY24), a government statement said on Wednesday. This is a 27 per cent jump over 2022-23 when their production stood at 116 MT.

Dispatch during FY24 was 143 MT against 110 MT in FY23, a growth of 30 per cent, the ministry of coal said. 

As on March 31, 2024, 58 coal mines were under production in FY24 whereas 49 mines were producing as on March 31, 2023.

Nine new coal mines commenced production during FY24, which includes four captive mines and five commercial coal mines.

Of the total production of 147.2 MT, power sector captive mines produced around 121.3 MT. Captive mines of the non-power sector produced 8.4 MT and production from commercial mines stood at 17.5 MT. 

These captive mines were awarded to private companies and state-owned utilities over the last eight years. This came after a 2014 Supreme Court decision cancelled all coal block allocations made over the past two decades.

Three years ago, the coal ministry opened up the coal mining sector for private players to sell coal. The coal ministry has auctioned around 64 mines under commercial auction. 

The coal ministry believes that when private mining picks up, it will help build surplus coal stock.

It will also reduce pressure on national miner Coal India, which is the largest producer and supplier of coal.

This paper had reported recently that India plans to scale up its coal production capacity to 2 billion tonnes by 2030. This, it expects, would be more than the demand then, thereby helping build a buffer stock.