CIL's competitive edge under scanner over rising output cost, ageing mines

A second concern will be import, which instead of decreasing, might increase in the long term

In the coming years, though government-owned Coal India is poised to maintain leadership in a liberalised regime for the commodity, the world’s largest coal miner is also threatened with losing its competitive edge, primarily for technical reasons.

An internal assessment by the company in formulating a vision for the year 2030 reveals the strip ratio across its major mines is increasing substantially, which would lead to increased production cost. This ratio refers to the volume of waste material required to be handled to extract every one tonne of ore.

By the assessment, the weighted average strip ratio for Mahanadi Coalfields