Underground mining revival triggers equipment manufacturing investments

Mining News Agency - For one, an Indian consortium of companies is resurrecting Mining and Allied Machinery Corporation (MAMC), which has been lying defunct under liquidation since 2001.
The consortium, comprising Coal India Limited (CIL), capital equipment manufacturer BEML and power and water resource utility Damodar Valley Corporation (DVC), has taken over the asset and land of MAMC from official liquidators in 2008. MAMC, which specialised in underground mining with Russian collaboration during its heydays, has a 95 acre of land in eastern Indian province of West Bengal at Durgapur.
The consortium has appointed financial advisers to prepare a roadmap for reviving MAMC with a focus on manufacturing underground mining equipment, sources have said.
Significantly, BEML, with a large portfolio of construction and mining equipment, has added underground mining equipment to its manufacturing capacities and the restoration of MAMC will enhance such existing capacities to cater for increase in demand in domestic and overseas market as more underground projects are being conceived, the sources have added.
Kolkata-headquartered material handling equipment manufacturer, Tractors India Limited (TIL) on Thursday announced an investment of $2-million to set up an underground mining equipment facility at Asansol in West Bengal.
TIL is looking to enter into a technical collaboration with US equipment manufacturer Caterpillar for its new underground mining equipment manufacturing plant. TIL is already an existing dealer for Caterpillar in India.
The renewed interest among capital goods companies to make fresh investment stemmed from a rise in the number of underground mining projects in India.
Earlier this year, southern India headquartered Singareni Collieries Company Limited (SCCL) decided against phasing out its underground projects. Following up such a decision, SCCL announced opening at least two more greenfield underground projects – Kondapuram and Manuguru –over the next two to three years.
Continued focus on underground mining is critical for SCCL which currently has 30 such operational mines along with 17 opencast mines, predominant in southern Indian province of Telangana.
Underground mining was thought to have been in decline, with CIL, which accounts for 80% of domestic coal production, having reported a steady fall in production from underground mines from 9% in 2012 to below 6% last year.
One of the biggest reasons for underground mining falling out of favour among companies is the lack of large contiguous underground deposits, which makes the deployment of longwall mining equipment a challenge.
However, CIL technical consultancy arm, Central Mine Planning and Design Institute, has suggested that domestic coal miners identify underground mines which could be merged, reduce fragmentation of mining deposits to enable large scale deployment of longwall technology.