Indian Rare Earths unit to expand capacity

Indian Rare Earths Limited (IREL), a unit of the Department of Atomic Energy, is raising the capacity of its Manavalakurichi plant in Kanyakumari district at an outlay of Rs 65 crore.

Launching the expansion programme at Manavalakurichi, Prithviraj Chavan, Union Minister of State in the Prime Minister's Office, said the Centre had earmarked Rs 65 crore to expand the production capacity of IREL at Manavalakurichi.

The company would take up the expansion work in phases. The current production capacity of 90,000 tonnes a year of ilmenite and other allied products like zircon, monazite, sillimanite and garnet would be increased to 1.5 lakh tonnes in the first phase and to 2.5 lakh tonnes in the second phase.

IREL Manavalakurichi plays a major role in the countries overall nuclear programmes. It employs about 500 people.