The Hindu Business Line : Gujarat NRE MD to be on NZ coal company's board soon

Gujarat NRE Coke Ltd, the Rs 550-crore Low-Ash Metallurgical Coke (LAMC) manufacturer, is now spreading wings east and west and its Vice-Chairman and Managing Director, Mr Arun Kumar Jagatramka will soon be on the board of a coal company in New Zealand where he has invested $1.25 per head in the island nation having a population of four millions.

Mr Jagatramka, before emplaning for Beijing to participate in a conference, told Business Line that he is soon going to be appointed to the board of Pike River Coal Company Ltd, after completion of the planned initial public offering (IPO).

Gujarat NRE Coke Ltd recently extended its Australasian presence with the purchase of a NZ$20 million shareholding in Pike River Coal Company Ltd, a subsidiary of New Zealand Oil and Gas Ltd.

Additionally, it also contracted to take four lakh tonnes per annum of Pike River's premium hard coking coal over the life of the mine. The Pike River investment will extend Gujarat NRE's Australian interests to New Zealand. In the last two years, the company has acquired two coalmines in New South Wales apart from interests in other mining and mineral exploration ventures in Australia, he said.

In October 2004, the company had incorporated Gujarat NRE Australia Pty. Ltd as its subsidiary in Australia and acquired mining and exploration leases of the old South Bulli coalmine in New South Wales. The mine has since been renamed as "NRE No.1" colliery and started commercial production. Another mine, named as "NRE Avondale" is also expected to start commercial production in a phased manner next year, Mr Jagatramka said.

Besides, the company also acquired stake in Australian exploration companies, Rey Resources and Zelos Resources, which are mining and mineral prospecting entities. The move would help Gujarat NRE to get an access to thermal, coking coal and uranium in Australia and gold and copper in South America where the two companies are currently prospecting.

Gujarat NRE also acquired strategic interest in another Australian coal producing company, Resources Pacific Holdings Ltd, together with coal offtake agreement for the next ten years.

In India, the company will set up its next four-lakh-tonne capacity manufacturing unit in Dharwad district of Karnataka for an investment of about Rs 70 crore. It will start production in July 2007.

At present, the company, which is the largest, independent, non-captive manufacturer of LAMC in India, had three manufacturing facilities in India with a combined installed capacity of producing 14 lakh tonnes of LAMC per annum. The Kolkata-based company's Indian customers are, primarily, integrated steel plants, foundries producing ferro-alloys, pig iron, engineering goods, soda ash and zinc units, and chemical industries apart from customers in Brazil, South Africa and Europe.

Indian imports of coking coal of around 220 lakh tonnes per annum are expected to rise up to 640 lakh tonnes by 2011-12. Demands will further increase by India's own mission to manufacture 100 million tonnes of steel by 2020.

The company, whose tag "NRE" stands for `Natural Resources and Environment,' used environment-friendly and pollution-free non-recovery coke-making technology, with provision for heat recovery developed indigenously and comparable with the best in the world in this category.

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