New Delhi, Sept. 7:

Coal India Ltd (CIL), which had floated a global expression of interest (EoI) for reopening some of its abandoned mines through joint ventures with private companies, will give preference to companies offering reciprocal opportunities for development and operation of abandoned coal mines abroad.

Such development of foreign mines would be undertaken by the same joint venture companies, officials said.

CIL had floated global EoI for 18 abandoned coal mines where production had been stopped mostly due to safety reasons such as fire in some cases and water logging in the other cases.

There would be more than one joint venture and there could even be one each for every mine, officials said.

Out of the total, six belongs to Eastern Coalfields Limited (ECL) – Sangramgarh, Seetalpur, Kapasara, Shyampur A, Sripur and Girimint.

Another eight abandoned mines for which joint venture partners have been invited belong to Bharat Coking Coal Limited (BCCL).

These are Dharmaband, Gaslitand, Industry, Kendwadih, Kustore, Kujama, Victoria and Begunia.

The remaining four mines – Hindegir, Associated Karanpura, Khas Karanpura and Pipradih – belong to Central Coalfields Ltd (CCL).

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