Coal ministry eyes private companies to run Abandoned mines of CIL

The coal ministry on Thursday said state-run Coal India Ltd.'s proposed contracts for sub-contracting abandoned mines on a revenue sharing model could attract companies like Essel Mining, Adani Group, Tata Grotp, JSW Group and Jindal Steel & Power.

Coal India is looking to offer more than 100 such mines to the private sector on revenue sharing basis, similar to the government's commercial coal block auctions, an official statement said.

Earlier in the day, the ministry had held a stakeholder consultation with the private sector for discontinued/closed mines of Coal India. The consultation has attracted huge participation from the private sector, the ministry said in the statement.


A senior Coal India executive said the sub-contracting will be on the "mine developer and operator (MDO)" model, in which the company will mine the coal on a revenue-sharing basis. "There will be no transfer of ownership of mines," he said.

Coal India expects a good response from companies--primarily from plants which import coal--given that the international price of coal has surged. - Our Bureau