New Delhi [India], August 29 : National Aluminium Company Limited (NALCO), which has acquired five mines in Argentina through its joint venture Khanij Bidesh India Limited (KABIL), is hopeful that deposits on those mines will be suitable for commercial mining.
KABIL is a joint venture company of NALCO, HCL (Hindustan Copper Ltd) and MECL (Mineral Exploration and Consultancy Ltd) , NALCO being a major shareholder.
This is KABIL's initiative as part of India's growing push to establish self-reliance in strategic minerals that are for electric vehicles, and other electronics.
"Here in this KABIL, already five mines have been acquired in Argentina. (In) these five mines, non-invasive exploration has been completed," said Brijendra Pratap Singh, Chairman and Managing Director (CMD) of NALCO to ANI.
The project is now moving into its next phase, a more detailed assessment of the resources.
"We are going in for invasive exploration. That is a detailed exploration. For that, we are going to appoint one consultant and explorating agency who will be doing the exploration, and it will take around one and a half to two years. To do this invasive exploration and after that we'll come to know what is the status of lithium there, the deposits of lithium, the grade of lithium, the quantity of the lithium and after that we will take a decision to go in for commercial mining," Singh explained.
Prospects for successful extraction are promising, as nearby Chinese mines are running with good deposits.
"It is hopeful because the nearby Chinese mines are running there where we have got the deposits. Just nearby some Chinese mines are already operating there. We are hopeful that these deposits will be suitable for commercial mining," he supplemented.
On high US tariffs on Indian goods, Singh asserted it has no direct impact on NALCO, as the company does not currently export metals to the U.S.
"US tariff, as it is, not impacting now because we are not exporting anything to US. Whatever our exporting is chemical that is alumina is going to the middle east metal. We are not exporting any of the metal in the US," he said.
"The impact is that some availability of the metal in the Indian market has put pressure on the prices. Some of the metal from other countries is getting diverted to India also," he noted.
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