Indian State-run miner NMDC, the country’s largest iron-ore producer, has firmed up capital investments of $324-million to increase production by 50% to 48-million tons a year by the end of 2020/21. The State miner is committing higher capital expenditure (capex) and is significantly ramping up production to part mitigate the impending shortage of the critical steelmaking input, against the backdrop of numerous operational mines facing expiry of current mining leases (MLs) on March 31, 2020 and the government’s inability to complete the auction of fresh MLs before the expiry and avoid possible supply disruption to domestic steel producers.
