MOIL is India’s largest producer of manganese ore - the mineral that puts strength into steel - and has been doing it for more than 125 years from mines that are all over a century old and still working. Born from the nationalisation of a British mining company’s assets in 1962, it is now a debt-free government enterprise under the Ministry of Steel, supplying roughly half the country’s domestically produced manganese. Everything the company does flows from owning the richest high-grade manganese deposits in the country and converting that geological advantage into a logistics moat in central India, while slowly building downstream and renewable-energy sidelines on the same asset base. # Business segments Three engines at different scales - a manganese-mining core that dominates Indian supply, a tiny ferroalloy plant that upgrades its own ore, and a niche chemical-manganese unit that is the only one of its kind in the country - plus a small renewable-energy fleet that powers its own operations. ## 1. Manganese ore mining: the bedrock that supplies half of India’s steel-strengthening mineral **MOIL holds roughly 20% of India’s manganese resources, operates the country’s only high-grade mines, and sits in a central location where imported ore cannot compete on price - a structural moat that lets it capture about half of domestic production.** - **The only source of high-grade ore in India** - MOIL is the sole domestic producer of high-grade manganese ore, which means steelmakers and ferroalloy producers who need ore above 30% manganese content have no local alternative. Out of its roughly 1.8 million tonnes of annual production, about 1.3 million tonnes is prime grade suited for ferroalloy making, while the balance is lower grades that customers blend with expensive imported high-grade ore. - **A logistics fortress in the Central region** - the Indian manganese market splits into three zones of roughly 3 million tonnes each, and MOIL’s mines sit squarely in the Central zone where demand is about 2.8 million tonnes. Any customer in that region who switches to imported ore pays at least INR 1,500 per ton extra in freight, so MOIL is the default supplier and still has room to grow by another 1.5 million tonnes without leaving its home territory. - **Ten mines, seven of them underground** - the company operates three opencast and seven underground mines across the Balaghat belt in Madhya Pradesh and the Nagpur-Bhandara belt in Maharashtra, with around 70% of production coming from underground operations. The ore bodies are narrow, which makes full mechanisation difficult, so underground mining remains manpower-heavy - the single largest cost in those mines. - **Reserves that stretch decades ahead** - as of April 2025, MOIL’s total manganese reserves and resources stood at 121.97 million tonnes, against India’s total reserves of 75 million tonnes. The company is pushing its environmental clearance limit from 3.6 million tonnes toward 5 million tonnes to support a production target of 3.5 million tonnes by 2030, backed by five shaft-sinking projects at its biggest mines and a high-speed shaft at Balaghat that will eventually unlock up to 800,000 tonnes a year from that mine alone. - **Sold domestically, priced monthly** - ore sales are conducted through a mix of long-term contracts and spot sales with prices fixed each month. MOIL has also been designated as the State Trading Enterprise for manganese ore exports, and has begun shipping small parcels of low-grade ore to international buyers, though exports remain incidental to its domestic focus. ## 2. Ferro Manganese: a small captive upgrade of the company’s own ore **A 12,000-tonne-per-year alloy plant at Balaghat that turns MOIL’s manganese ore into a higher-value steelmaking input - meaningful as a downstream concept but tiny next to the mining engine.** - **Ore in, alloy out** - the plant, commissioned in 1998, consumes MOIL’s own manganese ore as raw material and produces ferro manganese, an alloy that steelmakers add to their furnaces to deoxidise and strengthen steel. In FY25 it produced its full nameplate capacity of 12,000 tonnes. - **A rounding error in the revenue mix** - ferro manganese contributed 6.86% of turnover, making it a modest adjunct to the mining business rather than a standalone growth engine. ## 3. Electrolytic Manganese Dioxide: the country’s only EMD plant, built for import substitution **A 1,500-tonne-per-year facility that is still the sole Indian producer of electrolytic manganese dioxide three decades after it was built - a niche strategic asset serving battery and chemical buyers.** - **One of a kind since 1991** - MOIL set up India’s first and still only EMD plant at its Dongri Buzurg mine in Maharashtra, creating a 100% import-substitution product used in dry-cell batteries, pharmaceuticals, and chemical processes. The plant produced 1,350 tonnes in FY25 and the company fulfills roughly 46% of India’s total requirement of dioxide ore. - **Small volumes, strategic positioning** - EMD accounts for less than 1% of MOIL’s turnover, so it is a niche rather than a profit centre, but its monopoly status in India gives the company a foothold in the battery supply chain at a time when manganese is finding new demand in lithium-ion cathodes. # Renewable energy **A 30.5 MW fleet of wind and solar plants that supplies over 43% of the company’s own power needs - a cost-saving sideline, not a standalone power business.** - **First-mover among government miners** - MOIL was the first Central Public Sector Enterprise to install a windmill, and its 20 MW of wind capacity across two farms in Madhya Pradesh is registered with the UN’s Clean Development Mechanism. The 4.8 MW farm directly offsets power consumption at the Balaghat mine and ferro manganese plant. - **Solar fills out the mix** - 10.5 MW of solar capacity is spread across Balaghat, Nagpur, and staff residential colonies, with power consumed at mines and plants charged at the cost of generation. Wind electricity sold to the grid under a power purchase agreement with the Madhya Pradesh distribution company contributed just 0.38% of turnover - confirming this is primarily a self-consumption asset. # Group structure and partners **MOIL is a listed government company with no existing subsidiaries, but it is building a network of state-level joint ventures to take its mining expertise into new geographies beyond its century-old home turf.** - **Majority-owned by the Government of India** - the Centre holds the controlling stake, with the state governments of Maharashtra (5.96%) and Madhya Pradesh (5.35%) as minority shareholders, and the balance held by public and institutional investors after the 2010 listing. - **A freshly incorporated JV in Madhya Pradesh** - in June 2026, MOIL and Madhya Pradesh State Mining Corporation incorporated MOIL MPSMCL MINING LIMITED, a 51:49 subsidiary that will mine manganese ore in the Bhudkum and Selva blocks where MOIL has already completed over 71,000 metres of exploration and established ore bodies. - **Gujarat partnership awaiting a mining lease** - a 51:49 joint venture with Gujarat Mineral Development Corporation has been approved by MOIL’s board to develop a 9.51-million-tonne manganese discovery in Chota Udepur, but the lease allocation is still pending with the Ministry of Mines. - **Chhattisgarh exploration underway** - MOIL is drilling the Nilkanthpur block under an MoU with Chhattisgarh Mineral Development Corporation, with over 11,600 metres completed and some positive borehole results, though work is currently suspended due to local issues. A joint venture company is proposed if the deposit proves viable.