Steel Authority of India Limited and National Mineral Development Corporation signed a memorandum of understanding to jointly develop the limestone mine at Arki in Solan district of Himachal Pradesh.

The Arki mine has deposits of about 100 million tonnes of quality limestone. The SAIL-NMDC 50:50 joint venture will develop the mine to produce 3 million tonnes of limestone per annum (1 million tonnes lumps and 2 million tonnes fines). While the low silica limestone lumps will be used by SAIL and NMDC as flux for steel making, the fines would be sold in the market. The cement industry has a huge demand for limestone fines.

SAIL presently does not have any captive source of low silica limestone and meets its entire requirement of this vital input from the market. With proposed expansion of SAIL’s production capacity in the next few years, its requirement of low silica limestone is slated to go up to 3 million tonnes.

Development of the Arki limestone mine will be another significant step in SAIL’s long term security of vital raw materials. On its part, NMDC will gain an assured buyer for its product. The JV will also enhance the opportunity to catalyze growth of local industry and peripheral development.