NMDC EYES IRON ORE IN ARMENIA
Suresh Nair
Metal Bulletin Daily Alerts
July 10, 2008 Thursday
India’s National Mineral Development Corp (NMDC) and its overseas
exploration partner Spice Minerals and Metals are mulling the purchase
of two iron ore deposits in Armenia, NMDC’s technical advisor VK
Varma told MB. The companies will hold equal stakes in joint venture
company NMDC Spice International should the acquisition be finalised,
and the partners may consider building a pellet plant in the central
Asia country.
"Spice Minerals had identified these assets and has asked NMDC to
carry out a due diligence exercise," said Varma. A technical team
from NMDC visited Armenia to study the resource and their report is
being examined by the company’s senior management. "If the outcome
is favourable, the proposal will be taken up with Spice Minerals’
senior management. Any further action will be taken afterwards,"
he said. The deposits in Armenia have a collective reserve of over
375 million tonnes and contain low-grade magnetite ore with around
35% Fe content that could be used for pelletisation. "Since the ore
is has very low iron content, pelletisation may be a better option,"
Varma said. Pellets could be shipped to India through the port of Poti
in neighbouring Georgia on the Black Sea. NMDC produces more than 30
million tpy of iron ore from its mines in Bailadilla, eastern India,
and Karnataka, south India. NMDC has plans to produce 32 million tpy
of iron ore in 2008-09 and 50 million tpy by 2014/15. Spice Minerals
and Metals is part of Spice Energy a privately-held company, which
had signed an memorandum of understanding with NMDC to jointly exploit
mineral resources outside of India.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress
