| Gujarat Mineral Development Corporation Limited (GMDC), established by the Government of Gujarat, in May, 1963, is a mining and mineral processing company in India. The company is the largest merchant seller of Lignite in India. The company produces lignite, bauxite, calcined bauxite, fluorspar and manganese ore. They are also engaged in the generation of power. The company offers lignite for various industrial units, including textiles, chemicals, ceramics, bricks, and captive power.
Lignite mining is the main operation of the company. GMDC currently has 6 operational Lignite mines with annual production capacity of 90 Lac Tonne per Annum (LTPA). The mines are located in Kutch, South Gujarat and Bhavnagar region.
GMDC's Bauxite mines are located in the districts of Kutch as well as Devbhoomi Dwarka in Gujarat. The Bauxite deposits of Gujarat are clustered deposits with numerous pocket deposits present in near-by vicinity.
The company commenced their operations; with small sand crushing plant at Surendranagar, which supplied graded sand to consumers all over the State. The sand was used by various manufacturers of sodium silicate and glass industries.
In the year 1968, the company commenced their next project, which was beneficiation of fluorspar, a rare mineral essential for basic industries, like refining of steel manufacturing of aluminium, hydrochloric acid, foundry flux and welding electrodes among others. In the early 70's the company commenced mining of lignite in Kutch district. In the year 1984, the company started mining operations at Rajpardi near Ankleshwar. They supplied lignite to majority of the textile industries from this mine.
In October 1997, the Government of Gujarat came out with an offer for sale of 82,68,000 equity shares of Rs 10 each at Rs 140 thereby diluting their stake to 74%. The Government intends to disinvest further equity in a period of 24 months so as to bring down their holding in GMDC to 49%-51%.
During the year 2004-05, the company commenced their operations in the mine at village Tadkeshwar in Surat district, which was leased by the company. The company commissioned the Sea Water Intake System, Desalination Plant, Fuel Oil Handling System, Cooling Water System and Air Compressor System & Other Auxiliary Systems.
During the year 2004-05, the company signed a MoU with RBG Minerals Industries, Udaipir for developing the Ambaji Group Mining and a concentration project. In December 15, 2004, the company completed the refractory dry out procedure of the Boiler Unit I lead to light up of the Boiler by oil. After the light up, steam blowing activities were undertaken and the first unit was successfully synchronized with GEB Grid on March 31, 2005.
During the year 2005-06, after commissioning of the Material Handling System, the first unit was taken on Lignite Trials and successfully reached its rated capacity of 125 MW by end of October 2005. The second unit was lighted up on October 10, 2005 and was successfully synchronized with the Grid on December 12, 2005. Lignite dispatch from Tadkeshwar started from March 2006 on commercial basis During the year 2006-07, the company executed a MoU with Gokul Refoils & Solvents Ltd for setting up of 125 MW captive power plant based on lignite from Tadkeshwar mine. Also, they executed a MoU with Jaypee Associates Ltd, New Delhi, for setting up a 2.4 MTPA cement plant based on limestone.
During the year, the company entered into a joint venture with Gujarat Power Corporation and formed a company namely, Bhavnagar Energy Company Ltd for 500 MW lignite based power plant at Bhavnagar. The unit 2 of power projects at Nani-Chher started commercial operation from May 1, 2005 and the unit 1 was commercialized from March 12, 2007.
During the year 2007-08, the company signed a MoU with Aluchem Inc, USA for setting up of 1 million TPA capacity Alumina based chemicals and speciality products based on Bauxite deposits. Also, the company was granted work permit by the Government of Gujarat for lifting of 1 lakh MT of Manganese Waste Dump from Shivrajpur in Baroda.
In September 2007, the company started mining production in Amod Lignite Mine near Rajpardi. The mining operations in Bhavnagar mine were commenced in April 2008 and the lignite production is expected to start from September-October 2008.
GMDC started operations in Umarsar Lignite Mine and Mevasa Bauxite Mine in FY 2014-15 that added further value to company's mining business.
During the year ended 31 March 2016, GMDC commenced setting up of another 50 MW of wind power among which 4 MW has already been commissioned.
The power generations of GMDC's Akrimota Thermal Power Station (ATPS) had crossed 1400 million units for the first time in FY 2016. These improvements in continuous generation were attributed mainly to the fast response time to any breakdowns by M/s KEPCO (Korea Electric Power Corporation) and addressing various technical shortfalls by timely procurement of spares.
To implement the project for setting up 125 MW Power plant in Joint Venture between GMDC and M/s. Gokul Refoils & Solvents Limited, a JVC under the name of M/s. Gujarat Gokul Power Limited was incorporated. The required land for the project was purchased and related project activities will be started.
GMDC started bauxite mining operations at its Mewasa Bauxite Mines in Devbhoomi Dwarka district of Gujarat from 28 April 2015. The annual production capacity of this mine is 1.25 lakh MT.
During the year ended 31 March 2017, GMDC's Akrimota Thermal Power Station has turned around and performed very well by producing 1392 MUs having 63.6% PLF. During the year under review, GMDC completed setting up of another 50 MW of wind power.
Manganese oxide, manganese dioxide and manganese sulphate plants set by Aikya Chemicals Private Limited JVC has been commissioned and production will start soon. GMDC invested Rs. 2.5898 crore as equity in the company during the year under report.
GMDC's Akrimota Thermal Power Station (ATPS) generated 446.267 Million Units with 82.64 % PLF in Q4 of FY 17-18 which is ever highest quarterly power generation. Also in month of March 2018, power generation remained 155.242 Million Unit with 83.46 % PLF, which is also ever highest monthly Power generation in ATPS.
During the year 2017-18, GMDC completed about 35,000 meters of core drilling within allotted Panandhro Extension & Bharkhandam lignite blocks and established about 55 mt of lignite and about 1250 mt of cement grade limestone deposit in western Kutch region. Similarly, GMDC also completed about 20,000 meters of core drilling in Ghala Lignite Block in Surat district and established lignite reserves of the order of 21 million tones. In addition, GMDC also carried out geological mapping with help of satellite images & GIS technology over possible bauxite & laterite bearing areas in Kutch and established additional bauxite bearing areas for stage - II exploration.
During the year 2018-19, the Company operated six lignite mines, namely, Panandhro, Mata-No-Madh, Rajpardi, Tadkeshwar, Bhavnagar and Umarsar Lignite Mines. During the year under review, 91.90 lakh MT of lignite were produced from these mines.
In the Financial year 2018-19, Company sold 1,11,560.60 MT of (<52% Al2O3) Non Plant Grade Bauxite along with 6,636.93 MT of mine dust from Gadhsisa Group of mine, District Kutch.
In the Financial year 2018-19, Company sold 5,125.48 MT (> 52% Al2O3) Plant Grade Bauxite and 54,513.74 MT of (<52% Al2O3) Non Plant Grade Bauxite from Mevasa Mine, District Devbhoomi Dwarka.
In the Financial year 2018-19, Company sold 48,713.68 MT of Sub grade Manganese Ore from Waste dump of Shivrajpur Project, District Panchmahal.
During the year 2018-19, Bhavnagar Energy Company Ltd. has been merged with Gujarat State Electricity Corporation Ltd. vide Notification dated 27th August 2018 issued by Energy and Petrochemicals Department, Government of Gujarat. GMDC has been given one share of GSECL of Rs 10/- fully paid against the total investment of Rs 29,765 lakh in 29,76,50,000 equity shares of BECL of Rs 10 each, fully paid.
In 2019-20, the Company operated five lignite mines, namely, Mata-No-Madh, Rajpardi, Tadkeshwar, Bhavnagar and Umarsar. Manganese Oxide, Manganese dioxide and Manganese Sulphate plant set by JVC was commissioned.
In 2022, the Company ventured into the harnessing of wind energy. A 200 MW wind turbine was commissioned at Kutch, Porbandar, Devbhumi Dwarka, Jamnagar, Rajkot and Bhavnagar in 2022.
In 2023, the Company started refurbishing of 250 MW Akrimota thermal power plant at Nani Chher, with a reported plant load factor of 38%. GMDC got two coal blocks at Odisha - the Burapahar Block in Sundargarh district with a geological reserve of 548 MT; and the Baitarani (West) Block in Angul district of Odisha with a geological reserve of 1,097 MT. |