KIOCL in talks to acquire stake in African mine

NEW DELHI: Karnataka’s ore company, KIOCL, has initiated talks to acquire an equity interest in an iron ore mine in the western African state of Mauritania that will give it access to resources for its proposed pellet plant in Mangalore.

According to senior executives from KIOCL, preliminary talks have been initiated with mine lease owner Curve Capital Ventures, as the Indian company scouts for potential sources to buy ore for the 3.5 million tonne pellet plant. It currently buys ore from NMDC. Curve Capital CEO Vinay Ganga confirmed the discussions. It had recently invited a strategic partner to develop the iron ore asset.

“KIOCL has significant experience in mining magnetite iron ore, which would make them a good partner to work with, since this particular deposit is largely a magnetite deposit. But discussions are at a preliminary stage and we have a long way to go,” Ganga added.

While reserves of the 980-square km Mauritania mine are not known yet, the mine is near to Indonesian company Bumi Resources’ mines in the country. “We would like to start producing at least a million tones of or iron ore concentrate before the next 12 months,” said Ganga. So far, exploration has indicated ore deposits of predominantly magnetite nature, he added.

Curve Capital has about 10 mining licenses in different African countries and in various minerals, including copper, bauxite, gold and quartz.