NMDC MD may visit Senegal to discuss JV with ArcelorMittal

KOLKATA: NMDC chairman and managing director Rana Som on Monday said he may visit Senegal next month to further discuss the proposed JV with ArcelorMittal.

"We are in talks. There has been a lot of progress and cooperative gesture. I may go to Senegal in the first week of August," NMDC chairman and managing director Rana Som told reporters on the sidelines of an interactive session on 'NMDC: new growth dimensions' at Merchants'Chamber of Commerce in Kolkata.

The state-owned miner is in talks with the world's largest steel maker to form a joint venture to develop iron ore mines in Africa.

Som further said that NMDC is "not only keen on joining hands (with AreclorMittal), but we want to extend it."

He, however, said that it has not yet produced a result which "I can announce."

NMDC and ArcelorMittal had earlier decided to develop a mining field in the West African nation of Senegal and form a joint venture to carry out the project.

Earlier, speaking at the programme, Som said that the company was working hard for the mining project in Africa.

Stating that NMDC was aggressively looking for foreign acquisitions, he said, "It was scouting for two assets in Australia."

Som said the company was also looking for coking coal assets abroad. "We are trying to buy working mines or undeveloped resources," he said.

He said although NMDC was a member of the International Coal Venture Limited (ICVL), the company has received approval from the government for acquiring coking coal asset on its own.