Coal news and updates

Essar Power may begin production at Jharkhand coal mine next year

Essar Power is likely to begin the production at its Jharkhand coal mine early next year.

"Production (from Tokisud North coal block in Jharkhand) will start in the last quarter of the current financial year," Essar Energy's Chief Executive Officer Sushil Maroo said on the sidelines of a coal summit here.

"We are going ahead with the opening of the mine... we are in dialogue with the state government," Maroo said.

Essar Power MP Ltd, an arm of Essar Power, had bagged the Tokisud North mine in Jharkhand in the auctions held earlier this year.

Essar Power MP had earlier announced signing of the Coal Mine Development and Production Agreement with the central government for the Tokisud North coal block in Jharkhand.

In March, Essar Power had said in a statement that it will commence mining at its Jharkhand coal block in next few months to help the company restart its Mahaan power plant, lying idle due to lack of fuel since last 18 months.

Essar Power MP owns and operates the 1,200 MW coal based power plant in Mahan, Madhya Pradesh, which has been set up with an investment of Rs 8,000 crore.

"With this coal mine acquisition, the company will commence mining operations to power the Mahan plant within a few months," it had said.

With Tokisud North coal mine coming on stream, 1,200 MW of power from the plant would soon be available to the country.

The company is in the process of signing long-term Power Purchase Agreements (PPAs), it had earlier said.

The mine, which has all necessary clearances to begin operations, has extractable coal reserves of 52 million tonnes (MT), it had added.

source: http://economictimes.indiatimes.com