State-owned mining major NMDC aims to start commercial operations at the two coal blocks allotted to it in Jharkhand last week by next 12 months, a company official has said. Last week, the Ministry of Coal allotted Rohne and Tokisud North coal mines in the Hazaribagh district of Jharkhand to the state-owned iron miner. "The company will first develop the mines and begin commercial operations at the mines in one year," the official said. The official also said that NMDC will be at advantage in terms of developing a common infrastructure for both mines due the distances between them is just about 10 km. Rohne coal block has extractable reserves of 191 million tonnes (MT) and planned production capacity of 8 million tonnes per annum, and the Tokisud North coal block has extractable reserves of about 52 MT of thermal coal and planned production capacity of 2.32 million tonnes per annum. With these coal blocks, the PSU under the Ministry of Steel, has diversified into coal. NMDC is also setting up its first steel plant at Nagarnar in the neighbouring state of Chhattisgarh with a capacity of 3 million tonnes per annum, which will mark its foray into the steel sector as well.
