AP Mineral Development Corporation Bags Coking Coal Mine Lease In Jharkhand

NEW DELHI: The Andhra Pradesh Mineral  Development Corporation bagged the lease for mining coking coal also known as metallurgical coal, used in blast furnaces for manufacturing steel, from the Brahmadiha opencast block in Jharkhand.

Union Additional Secretary (Coal) M Nagaraju and AP Principal Secretary (Mines) Gopal Krishna Dwivedi signed the allotment agreement in the presence of Union Home Minister Amit Shah and Coal and Mines Minister Pralhad Joshi in New Delhi on Monday.

APMDC was the only government entity to emerge as the successful bidder among 19 others and Brahmadiha was the only coking coal mine offered, as per a tweet by AP Principal Secretary (Mines) Gopal Krishna Dwivedi.

Coal Mines Agreement Signing Ceremony with 19 successful bidders was held in New Delhi today in presence of Hon'ble Home Minister Shri Amit Shah & Hon'ble Coal Minister Shri Prahlad Joshi. APMDC is the only public sector successful bidder out of 19.https://t.co/3Sov1skb8z

— Gopal Krishna Dwivedi (@gkd600) January 11, 2021

The revenue share to the government for the coal block will be 41.75 per cent. It is estimated that Brahmadiha has balance extractable reserves of 1.92 million tonnes of coking coal spread over a 105 hectare area.

The actual mining of coking coal was expected to begin in two years. Coking coal price has seen a dip over the years from an average of Rs 13,168 per tonne in 2017-18 to Rs 9,820 in 2020-21 (till September).

The average import price has also fallen to Rs 9,648 per tonne now from Rs 13,899 in 2018-19 financial year.

Taking into all this and the financials into consideration it is expected to get an overall profit of Rs 500 crore over the lease period, officials said.