The Government of India has taken various steps to increase the supply of minerals which include, inter-alia, Mining and Mineral Policy reforms to ensure enhanced production, early auction & operationalization of mines with expired leases, ease of doing business, seamless transfer of all valid rights & approvals, incentivizing for starting of mining operation & dispatch, transferring of mining leases, allowing captive mines to sell up to 50% of the minerals produced, enhancing the exploration activities etc.

Mission Coking Coal

The Ministry of Coal has launched Mission Coking Coal in FY22 to meet the domestic coking coal demand projected in National Steel Policy 2017. To reduce the import of Coking Coal, the blending of coking coal by the steel sector will be increased from 10-12% at present to 30-35%. The transformative measures taken by the Ministry of Coal under ‘AatmaNirbhar Bharat’ initiative of the Prime Minister, domestic raw Coking Coal production is likely to reach 140 MT by 2030, yielding after washing about 48 MT of usable Coking Coal.

Further, the government has prepared a road map to reduce the import dependency on hydrocarbons including LNG by adopting a five-pronged strategy which includes increasing domestic production, adopting biofuels & renewables, enhancing energy efficiency, improvement in refinery processes and demand substitution.

There is sufficient reserve of iron ore and non-coking coal in the country to meet the current demand/consumption by the domestic steel industry. However, the coking coal is imported as the supply of high-quality coal/ coking coal (low-ash coal) in the country is limited as compared to the demand which is primarily used by Integrated Steel Producers.

This information was given by the Union Minister of State for Steel Sh. Faggan Singh Kulaste in a written reply to a question in Rajya Sabha.

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KS/AR