NALCO joint venture KABIL and Oil India join hands for mineral exploration

In a filing to the stock exchanges after market hours on Wednesday, the company said that its Joint Venture entity, Khanij Bidesh India Ltd (KABIL), has entered into a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Oil India for the exploration of critical minerals.

Khanij Bidesh India Ltd (KABIL) is a joint venture company of three government enterprises, including National Aluminium Company Ltd. (NALCO), Hindustan Copper Limited (HCL) and Mineral Exploration & Consultancy Limited (MECL).

The company informed the stock exchanges that the MoU signed at NALCO’s corporate headquarters in Bhubaneswar on August 28 aims to collaborate on KABIL's existing and future projects to explore and exploit critical minerals.

“The MoU has been signed with the objective of collaborating in existing and future projects of KABIL with the aim of strengthening and fostering connections in the exploration and exploitation of critical minerals,” NALCO said in a press release filed at the stock exchanges.

Shares of NALCO dropped 2.69% to hit an intraday low of ₹179.71 apiece on the NSE. However, the stock recovered some of the early losses to trade at ₹182.87 apiece, down 0.92%, at 3:15 pm.

The initiatives under the MoU will find international critical mineral opportunities, according to NALCO.

KABIL and Oil India will further direct their efforts towards comprehensive due diligence of potential critical mineral opportunities. As per the official release, the companies will also co-invest in potential critical mineral projects.

NALCO CMD and KABIL chairman Sridhar Patra said that the MoU will help KABIL make progress in the critical minerals exploration field, taking a step forward in its journey of ‘Atma Nirbhar Bharat’ and mineral securitisation of India.

KABIL has been formed to ensure supply-side assurance of critical and strategic minerals and mineral security of India.