Steel ministry undertaking KIOCL Limited has signed a memorandum of understanding with Mineral Exploration Corporation Limited (MECL) for joint exploration of mineral assets in the country. Both the public sector companies will jointly deploy their mining and mineral exploration experts to undertake mining and detailed exploration of minerals in various states.

It is learnt that only 1 per cent of mineral bearing area of the country has been explored till now and about 800,000 square kms of mineralised area requires detailed exploration to identify the ore resources and their intrinsic values, KIOCL said in a statement.

?Considering the urgent need for extensive mineral exploration works in near future, KOCL and MECL made this arrangement for utilising both the organisations? technical expertise to carry out regional and detailed exploration activities in the country,? the statement added.

KIOCL Chairman and Managing Director Malay Chatterjee and Gopal Dhawan, CMD of MECL signed the memorandum in the presence of Steel and mines minister Narendra Singh Tomar, here today. Tomar was in Bengaluru today to chair the second meeting of the Consultative Committee on Ministry of Steel and Mines.

The recently amended MMDR Act has facilitated the public sector companies to enter into the area of exploration besides their core activity. The government has notified Steel Authority of India, KIOCL Limited, MOIL and RINL to conduct exploration of new mineral areas in an order to increase the production of various minerals in the country.

Addressing the Consultative Committee meeting, Tomar said India has emerged as the third largest producer of steel in the world after China and Japan during the first five months of this calendar year.

?Indian steel industry is growing at a reasonably good pace and last year the growth in crude steel production in India was more than 8 per cent. However, per capita steel consumption is quite low at 60 kg as against the world average of 216 kg. We have fixed a target of achieving 300 million tonne production capacity by 2025 and my ministry is working out an action plan and strategies to achieve this target,? Tomar added.