India's MOIL to Double Manganese Ore Production in Three Years

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Researched by Industrial Info Resources (Sugar Land, Texas)--India's MOIL Limited, formerly known as Manganese Ore India Limited (Nagpur, Maharashtra) will increase its manganese ore production capacity from 1.09 million tons per year to 2 million tons per year over the next three years. MOIL will invest $202 million to raise output from mines and increase the production of value-added manganese alloys.

The Indian government-owned MOIL operates 10 mines across a total area of 1,788 hectares, which is estimated to have total reserves of 60 million tons, or 58% of all minable manganese reserves in India. Of the 10 mines, six are in the Nagpur and Bhandara districts of Maharasthra, and four are in the Balaghat district of Madhya Pradesh.

MOIL will invest $7 million to ramp up production from the Balaghat mines from 300,000 tons per annum to 500,000 tons. MOIL will set up a 500,000-ton capacity beneficiation plant at the site. The underground mines at Balaghat have reached a depth of 309 meters from the surface. The company has also been given the exploration rights across 814 hectares in Maharasthra.

The company has planned a joint venture with Steel Authority of India Limited (SAIL) (BSE:500113) (New Delhi) to construct a plant to manufacture ferromanganese and silicomanganese at a total project cost of $88 million. MOIL will commit $22 million in this project. The plant will be located in the central Indian state of Chattigarh.

MOIL will also construct an identical plant in collaboration with Rashtriya Ispat Nigam Limited (RINL) (Vishakhapatnam, Andhra Pradesh), popularly known as the Vizag Steel Plant, entailing a project cost of $46 million. MOIL's investments in this project will be $11 million.

India's total annual production of manganese ore is about 2.4 million tons, including 1.09 million tons produced by MOIL. However, only 800,000 tons of ore produced in the country is categorized as high-grade, which has a manganese content of more than 42%. India imported 680,000 tons of manganese ore in the past fiscal year. Manganese ore is used in steelmaking. The ore is melted to form an alloy of iron and manganese, which is then fed into steel mills for the production of carbon steel and stainless steel.

India has major reserves of manganese estimated at 460 million tons, compared to estimated global reserves of 5 billion tons. But 60% of Indian reserves have been categorized as low-grade, with manganese content below 42%. Total recoverable reserves are estimated to be 166 million tons. The world production of manganese ferro-alloys is estimated to be 14 million tons per year, and manganese metals production is estimated to be 1 million tons per year. About 98% of manganese alloys are used to manufacture carbon steel or stainless steel, while about 2% is used in dry-battery making. By steel industry standards, about 1 kilogram of manganese alloy is required to manufacture one ton of carbon steel.

To add value to ore mined, MOIL has set up a ferromanganese plant with a capacity of 10,000 tons per year, and an electrolytic manganese dioxide plant with a capacity of 10,000 tons per year.

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