Vedanta’s subsidiary Bharat Aluminium Company (Balco) has inaugurated its Chotia coal mine in Chhattisgarh, India.
The mine was allocated to the company in February after it emerged as the highest bidder in a coal auction.
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Balco CEO and whole time director Ramesh Nair said: "Chotia is integral to Balco’s strategy. It will add to our coal security by a reasonable margin.
"Aluminium production is a power-intensive process and our captive power plants need to source coal at viable rates. The Chotia mine, with its capacity of one million tonnes per annum, will directly feed our captive power plants, besides imports and SECL through auction."
According to Balco, companies from the regulated and non-regulated sectors have been awarded mines through a transparent bidding process.
During FY2016, the Chotia coal mine is expected to produce three lakh tonnes of coal.
According to Vedanta, the Chotia mine is the only coal mine of the group and has high-quality reserves.
By supplying coal continuously through the Chotia Mine, along with optimisation of capex and opex, the company said it will be able to maintain business sustainability.
With a presence across India, South Africa, Namibia, Ireland, Australia, Liberia and Sri Lanka, Vedanta has its business primarily involved in exploring and processing minerals and oil and gas.
