Coal India working on acquiring lithium block in Argentina: Chairman

State-owned CIL is actively working on acquiring a lithium block in Argentina and is eyeing a critical mineral block in Australia, the company's Chairman-cum-Managing Director P M Prasad on Wednesday.

Shares of Coal India Limited ended 0.13% up at ₹398.15 apiece on the NSE on Wednesday, April 2.

"In Argentina, we are actively working, the teams visited Argentina two to three times. We had government-to-government interaction," Prasad told reporters during the curtain-raiser of the 11th Asian Mining Congress and 11th International Mining Exhibition.

The search for a lithium block is also underway in Australia, he said.

Critical minerals, including lithium, play an important role in the production of clean energy technologies, from wind turbines to electric cars. They are particularly in demand for the production of batteries for electric cars.

The chairman said there will be no coal shortage at electricity generating units this year.

"There will be no shortage this time like last year. Our coal stock at pithead at present is 106 million tonnes," he added.

Coal India Ltd (CIL), which accounts for over 80% of domestic coal production, is targeting a production of 875 million tonnes (MT) in this financial year. The company's dispatch target for FY26 is 900 MT, he said.

CIL produced 781.1 MT of coal in 2024-25, about 7% less than the company's target of 838 million tonnes for the fiscal year.

The chairman further said the increase in prices of coal by CIL with effect from April 16 will have a minor impact on the profitability of the company.

State-owned Coal India Ltd on Tuesday said its board has approved a ₹10 per tonne increase in prices of both coking and non-coking coal with effect from April 16.

This price adjustment is aimed at contributing to the corpus of the Coal Mines Pension Scheme-1998.