Coal India May Complete (foreign) Mine Acquisition This Year

[phantom power]

Oct. 5 (Bloomberg) -- Coal India Ltd., the nation’s monopoly producer of the fuel, said it expects to complete a mine acquisition in the year ending March 31, and has hired Royal Bank of Canada to carry out due diligence on a deposit in Australia.

The state-owned company is seeking mines in the U.S., Australia, South Africa and Indonesia and as many as 52 companies want to be its partners, Chairman Partha S. Bhattacharyya told reporters in New Delhi today.

Coal India said Aug. 27 it may invest as much as $1.5 billion to acquire mines overseas to help overcome a shortage of the fuel as the country plans to almost double its power generation capacity by 2012. The company estimates a shortage of about 228 million tons a year of coal by March 2012.

...

India’s coal demand is estimated to reach 731 million tons a year by March 2012, J. Goel, chief general manager of sales and marketing at Coal India, said Feb. 24. The company wants local mining approvals sped up to boost domestic output.

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601091&sid=axNZMWp0OOto

[Vincardog]

1. Are they going to be using that "Clean Coal" technology I keep seeing on the TV?

[phantom power]

2. My magic 8-ball says "outlook not so good"

[Vincardog]

3. What about Mountain to removal mining? Polluting the waterways? Leaving scars on the land that

will last thousands of years? How about importing high skilled miners to replace our local grown ones?