State-owned NMDC that clocked record 45 million tonne iron ore output last fiscal is eyeing 50 MT in FY25, Chairman and Managing Director Amitava Mukherjee said on Tuesday.

“Gearing up to deliver 50 MT of iron ore in FY25... journey from hereon will be guided by an ambitious growth strategy. The company is investing in capacity expansion and new infrastructure to augment capacity to 72 MT from existing iron ore mines while also developing NCL (NMDC CMDC Ltd) JV mines to contribute another 28 MT,” he told the 66th annual general meeting.

Leveraging on strengths and constraint optimisation will be drivers to achieve the vision of 100 MT production capacity by 2030, he said. The target will be in line with National Steel Policy’s vision to enhance India’s steel production capacity to 300 MT by 2030. NMDC with 100 MT would account for a quarter of the 430 MT of raw material required to reach the target, he said.

New approach

Toward becoming a 100 MT miner, NMDC is transforming its approach to machinery, material and manpower planning. “A steely intent is driving our investment in intelligent equipment and cutting edge mining systems such as automatic sampling, fleet management and rapid wagon loading,” Mr. Mukherjee said.

In FY24, NMDC produced 45.02 MT and sold 44.48 MT of iron ore, a 10% and 16% rise respectively compared with FY23.

India’s iron ore output rose around 7% from 257 MT in FY23 to 275 MT. “NMDC played a significant role... securing a commendable 16% market share,” he said.

Reducing carbon emissions

He added NMDC would transition to slurry pipelines and rail from roads to reduce carbon emissions in its supply chains. Progress in this direction is underway with doubling of the Kirandul-Kothavalasa railway line set to be completed in FY25 and the 15 MTPA slurry pipeline from Bacheli to Visakhapatnam set to be readied in FY27.

NMDC is also building a 2 MTPA pellet and 10 MTPA beneficiation plants along the slurry pipeline route with plans to introduce blending yards in its ecosystem as a step toward zero waste mining.

The firm is exploring opportunities to mine critical minerals like lithium and cobalt and is also investing in solar and wind energy projects, he said.

NSL set to break even

Addressing the 9th AGM of NMDC Steel Ltd, Mr. Mukherjee, who is CMD (Additional Charge) of the company, said NSL is on the threshold of breaking even. “Currently, we are producing close to 1.25 lakh tonnes of HR Coil, which is marginally below our break even point on a month on month basis. We plan to ramp up production to 2.1 lakh tonnes of hot metal and 1.5 lakh tonnes of HR Coil on a monthly basis, consistently. We are confident that we will reach this target in the third quarter of FY25. Over the past year, NSL has made steady progress in ramping up production and stabilising operations.