NMDC lights up India's second largest blast furnace at Nagarnar steel plant

HYDERABD: State owned iron ore miner NMDC Ltd on Monday said it had fired up India's second largest blast furnace at its steel plant at Nagarnar in Chhattisgarh over the weekend.

The 4,506m3 blast furnace, called `Maa Danteshwari, is designed to produce 9,500 tonnes of hot metal (molten metal) per day. It commenced operations after the initial loading of 1700 tonnes of coke, 985 tonnes of sinter, 270 tonnes of iron ore and 245 tonnes of fluxes.

NMDC said the commissioning of the blast furnace, which was designed and built by Tata Projects Ltd in collaboration with technology supplier Danieli Corus BV of Netherlands and consultant MECON, marks a crucial step towards the operational readiness of its steel plant.

NMDC Ltd chairman & managing director (additional charge) Amitava Mukherjee said the steel plant will produce HR coils, sheets, plates and hot metal while operating on a zero-discharge concept.

“It houses one of the most energy-efficient and environment-friendly technologies to produce steel,” he said.

NMDC’s iron and steel plant at Nagarnar is an integrated three metric tonnes per annum capacity facility that is coming up at a sanctioned cost of Rs 23,840 crore over 1,800 acres of land.

The NMDC Iron and Steel Plant was demerged from NMDC Limited to NMDC Steel Limited in October 2022.

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