Coal news and updates

CIL defends sampling of Mozambique coal at CMPDI laboratory

June 18: Coal India Limited (CIL) has defended its decision to bring coal from Mozambique for testing the quality at the laboratory of its subsidiary CMPDI in Ranchi instead of getting tested in South Africa or nearby nations.

Many in industry circle believed that CIL was wasting too much time and money by bringing in coal to India as it could have easily got the material tested at some other laboratory in nearby countries, including South Africa.

“I do not think there would have been significant saving in time had we not brought the material during the first and second phase of drilling to India. In any case it would have taken 15-20 days to take the material to South Africa by road,” a director of the company told ICMW.

“Moreover, our decision to bring the coal for testing to India was totally based on the degree of reliability of testing based on which investment decision would be taken. We could not take that risk,” the director said.

“The reliability is of extreme importance to take big investment decisions as one never knows when companies or people with vested interest might be involved,” the director added.

“We have had to be extremely sure of the quality of coal that is available in our blocks A1 and A2 in Mozambique,” the director said.