Canada invites Coal India to explore mining opportunities

S. Gopalakrishnan, President, CII with Chandrajit Banerjee, Director General, CII at annual regional meeting and conference on Driving Growth: Leveraging Opportunities in Kolkata on March 08, 2014 when Sumit Mazumder, Vice President, CII is also present. Photo: Ashoke Chakrabarty

World’s largest miner Coal India Ltd was invited by Canada to explore mining opportunities in the country on Tuesday.

“We want Coal India to come to Canada and invest in the coal sector, mainly in metallurgical and coking coal,” Canadian High Commissioner Stewart G Beck said in Kolkata on Tuesday on the sidelines of an interactive session with members of CII eastern chapter.

He also met senior officials of Coal India Ltd (CIL) to discuss opportunities for the company.

A few Indian steel companies have started importing some grades of coal from Canada.

CIL was planning to import coal on behalf of its power plant consumers to meet the shortfall in supply and tender has already been floated seeking bids for the same.

But as CIL is looking at thermal coal to feed the power plants, it is looking at coal sources closer home.

Beck also expressed hopefulness for higher growth in bilateral trade with India.

“In 2013, the total bilateral trade was around $ 5.5 billion, a growth of 12 per cent over last year. We are expecting a higher growth this year,” he added.