SAIL's Barsua iron mine resumes production

KOLKATA: Steel Authority of India Limited (SAIL)'s Barsua Iron Mine (BIM) has resumed production after a gap of four years. Located in Odisha, Barsua iron mine operates under SAIL’s Raw Materials Division (RMD) and primarily to supplies iron ore to Rourkela and Bokaro Steel Plants, besides other SAIL plants. The mines, with 3.5 million tonne per annum (mtpa) capacity, resumed production on Sunday, May 20, 2018.

Resumption of production at Barsua mines coincides with the lighting of RSP’s Blast Furnace No-1-Parvati. Rebuilt with state of the art technology the 1710 cubic metre blast furnace was lighted on May 8, 2018. It will produce nearly 1.05 mtpa of hot metal. Reopening of Barsua mine will supplement the iron ore feed for SAIL steel plants. With SAIL ramping up hot metal production, the enhanced requirement of iron ore are to be met by RMD's mines. This year, 2018-19 RMD’s iron mines in Odisha and Jharkhand are set to produce about 24.50 million tonne of iron ore. Barsua’s production will be integral to achieve the target.

Production at Barsua was discontinued in May 2014 due to certain legal issues. However, on May 11, 2018, Supreme Court disposed the case in favour of SAIL paving the way for resumption of production at the mines.