India Says Steel Authority Ore Mine Delayed on Security Reasons

New Delhi : Steel Authority of India Ltd. (SAIL) has delayed development of the Rowghat iron-ore mine in the central state of Chhattisgarh that is meant to supply its biggest mill due to “security reasons,” the government said.

Current iron-ore reserves for the plant at Bhilai, which has an annual capacity of 5.8 million metric tons, will last five to six years, Steel Minister Beni Prasad Verma said in reply to a question in parliament in New Delhi today. He didn’t elaborate on the security problem.

Mineral-rich Chhattisgarh is one of a dozen of India’s 28 states where Maoist rebels are active. Steel Authority, India’s second-biggest producer of the alloy, plans to increase its annual capacity by 55 percent to 21.4 million tons by next year.