Coal India to enter new mining areas, says official

KOLKATA: Coal India is planning to diversify into new mining areas although it believes the fossil fuel to remain as the primary source of power generation for at least the next two decades, a company official has said.

"We do not want to be known as just a coal company. We want to diversify. We want to enter into metal mining like iron ore, bauxite and also plan to acquire some mines...do mining activities abroad in the field of copper and nickel," Coal India director (marketing) S N Prasad said at a coal seminar.

"We have core competence in mining and with this we want to diversify. Mining is the strength of the company and metal mining industry is one of this," he said.

The process of identifying the areas is underway, he added.

Diversification into mining of other minerals could be done to lower the import bill of the country.

Prasad said coal would remain the main fuel for power generation in India in the next two decades despite stiff competition from renewables.

Coal India has also decided to build 20,000 MW solar power and Prasad said the company already has enough land to execute the projects.