The wholly-owned subsidiary of Tata Steel bagged leases for three chromite mines — Sukinda Chromite Mine, Saruabil Chromite Mine and Kamarda Chromite Mine — at Jajpur in Odisha. It has ferro-chrome plants in Athagarh and Gopalpur in Odisha.
Among leases that expired on March 31 and subsequently auctioned, Sukinda Chromite Mine was the first commercial lease to be converted into mining lease across India. The lease was granted for 50 years.
Bags contract
Tata Steel Mining pipped several companies including Rungta, MSPL and Anil Agarwal-owned Vedanta to bag the Sukinda chrome mines with commitment to pay 94 per cent of the average sale price to the Odisha government.
MC Thomas, Managing Director, TSML, said it is a significant first step in the company’s journey of commercial mining and will treat all stakeholders as partners in the long-term value creation.
Consolidation move
Last November, Tata Steel decided to consolidate all its mining activities under the new company Tata Steel Mining and merged TS Alloys into it.
The move was part of Tata Steel’s plan to consolidate its domestic business into four verticals — steel products, downstream, mining and infrastructure.
Pioneer in mining
Tata Steel is one of the oldest miners in the country having pioneered iron ore mining over a century ago. It has mining sites mostly in Jharkhand and Odisha.
The company mines 100 per cent of its iron ore requirements and about one-fourth of its coking coal requirement from its captive mines.