Essar Steel has entered into deals with private iron ore miners from Orissa, including the Ahluwalia group and the Mesco group, for supplies over a 10 year period as the company seeks to buy mines overseas and apply for allotment of captive mines from within the country. Essar is investing in a beneficiation plant at Damona in Orissa as part of a INR 18,000crore CAPEX plan. The ore will be processed at the upcoming 12 million tonne pellet plant at Paradeep and shipped to Hazira, where expansion plans are set to increase capacity to 10 million tonnes from the current 4.6 million tonnes by March 2012.
