Coal India Ltd.

Coal India (CIL) has entered into a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with government of Limpopo, South Africa for jointly identifying, exploring and developing coal mines. Moreover, in order to execute the pact, it would be required to set up a subsidiary of the PSU in South Africa. The joint venture would be between the public firm of Limpopo and a subsidiary of CIL.

In the previous year, the government of Limpopo, the northernmost province of South Africa, had approached CIL, requesting the PSU to form a joint venture (JV) with one of its public sector firms for acquiring coal mines there. The PSU has put together a war-chest of Rs 6,000 crore for acquisition of mines overseas.

CIL, which accounts for more than 80% of the domestic coal production, missed its revised 2011-12 production target as it achieved only 435.84 million tonne as against 447 million tonne.