# Coal India to bid for more iron ore mines, plans pellet plant 2026-08-17T13:12:15+00:00 | Business & Economy | Indian Opinion Desk Corroboration: 1 independent outlet Coal India Ltd plans to bid for more iron ore blocks, focusing on financial viability, as it prepares to build a pelletization plant. The state-owned miner won its first iron ore block, Gadadharpur in Odisha, earlier this month with a premium of 114.05%. The Gadadharpur block, spread over 265 hectares in Keonjhar, has estimated resources of 258 million tonnes. Coal India's move aligns with the government's target to raise steel production to 300 million tonnes a year by 2030, requiring about 437 million tonnes of iron ore annually. Experts question the economics. Dhruv Goel of BigMint said a 114% premium may not be viable even with pelletization. Tata Steel and JSW Steel have avoided auctions with premiums above 100%. Coal India will assess viability before bidding for more blocks. ## Coverage - livemint.com This story was synthesised by AI from the source linked above. Tags: Coal India Ltd, JSW Steel, NMDC Ltd, Odisha, Tata Steel Canonical: https://indianopinion.org/coal-india-to-bid-for-more-iron-ore-mines-plans-pellet-plant/ License: Summary and commentary (c) Indian Opinion, reusable with attribution. Facts belong to the linked sources. Cite: https://indianopinion.org/coal-india-to-bid-for-more-iron-ore-mines-plans-pellet-plant/#story-in-brief Review state: restored archive article, accurate at time of publication, not offered to search indexes. How this brief was made: an AI model read the report linked above and wrote this summary and analysis, which were published automatically. Published briefs are sampled every hour by an automated quality check; the editor verifies its findings and approves corrections, and corrected briefs carry a dated correction line. We do no original reporting. Methodology: https://indianopinion.org/ai-use-policy/