【Ferro-alloys.com】New Delhi, Dec 21 (FN Agency) The Government is looking at boosting domestic production of manganese ore with an eye on achieving a record 115 million tonnes of steel this year which looks well within reach given the current production trajectory. At a meeting of the consultative committee of the Ministry of Steel on Tuesday, Minister of Steel Ram Chandra Prasad who is the Chairman of the body, along with Minister of State for Steel Faggan Singh Kulaste asked Central Public Sector Enterprises under the Ministry to take up the issue of manganese ore exploration with state governments, an official statement said.

The CPSEs were also instructed to explore possibilities of new manganese bearing areas in India to boost the domestic production of manganese ore as per the National Steel Policy 2017, an official statement said. Exploration and survey of minerals in Jharkhand, Odisha and Karnataka and the constitution of a research and development team to work out the possibility of usage of manganese in e-vehicles batteries were some of the key proposals table in the meeting. The stakeholders also covered issues like usage of manganese ore, global scenario of manganese ore, manganese production in India and contribution of Manganese Ore India MOIL), a miniratna state-owned manganese ore mining company, in the country’s manganese production.

The miniratna contributes around 45 per cent of the domestic production and has drawn up a plan to increase production upto 1.8 million MT by year 2024-25 and 3.5 million MT by year 2030. The total reserves of manganese ore in the country are placed at 93 million MT with resources distributed in various districts in 10 states namely Andhra Pradesh, Goa, Gujarat, Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Orissa, Rajasthan and West Bengal. As per data available MOIL with operations at present in Maharashtra and Madhya Pradesh, has produced 11.43 lakh tonne out of 24.8 lakh tonne of total India’s production during the year 2020-21. As per the National Steel Policy 2017, the projected capacity crude steel will be 300 MT for which the requirement of manganese ore to cater to this domestic demand of steel would be 6.50 million MT by 2030.

• [Editor:zhaozihao]