KOLKATA (miningweekly.com) - The provincial government of Odisha, in eastern India, has decided to divest of a ferrochrome plant operated by Idcol Ferrochrome and Alloys Limited (IFCAL) to private investors, owing to the unavailability of the required grade of chrome ore.
However, in a memorandum to the provincial government, the trade unions operating at IFCAL sought the handing over of the ferrochrome plant to either the Steel Authority of India Limited or Orissa Mining Corporation (OMC).
IFCAL is wholly owned by the Industrial Development Corporation of Orissa Limited, an industrial promotion arm of the provincial government, while OMC was the government’s mining company.
The IFCAL plant was constructed in 1969 linked to the chrome ore mines of Tailangi in the Sukinda reserves. However, the required grade of chrome from the linked mines had become unavailable, forcing IFCAL to secure supplies from merchant miners, which has proven unviable for the plant operations, forcing a shutdown of part of the capacity last year.
A third chrome ore mine had been allocated for the ferrochrome plant had not been operationalised, owing to delays in mandatory clearances and rehabilitation of local population.
The plant had an installed capacity of 19 000 t of high carbon ferrochrome.