India’s largest iron ore miner began in 1958 as a government enterprise to unlock the remote Bailadila deposits in Chhattisgarh, and six decades later it still does one thing at a scale no domestic rival matches - extracting and selling high-grade iron ore to the country’s steel mills. Over time it has added coal, rare earths, diamonds and a web of international exploration vehicles, but the recurring approach is the same: use its privileged access to long-life, low-cost mineral deposits, build the railways and pipelines to move the material, and let competitors chase the downstream processing. Everything else - the demerged steel plant, the overseas subsidiaries, the critical-mineral MoUs - is either a spin-off of that core or a bet placed with the cash flows it generates.
Business segments
Three engines at different stages - an iron ore cash cow that is the company, a coal business just starting production, and a collection of niche minerals and international exploration that together are still a rounding error - each built on the same government-backed, low-cost-resource model.
1. Iron ore: the business itself
NMDC runs four highly mechanised mines that produce roughly one-sixth of India’s iron ore at a cost structure few can match, selling every tonne to domestic steel plants.
- One of the lowest-cost producers globally - the mines are highly mechanised, the ore grade averages 64.6% Fe, and the company’s lease renewals were secured at revenue-share rates far below what private competitors pay at auction, so the cost advantage is structural.
- Long-life leases in mineral-rich ground - seven mining leases across Chhattisgarh and Karnataka run until 2035-2042, covering deposits like Bailadila and Donimalai, which means the company can plan extraction decades ahead without the uncertainty of re-auction.
- Two product forms, one customer type - it sells Lump (10-40mm, for blast furnaces and direct-reduction plants) and Fines (-10mm, for sintering and pelletising), with lump commanding a higher price; in Q4 FY26 lump averaged INR 5,610 per tonne and fines INR 4,248 per tonne.
- Pellets through a job-work model - instead of building its own large pelletising capacity, NMDC transfers ore to third parties for conversion; in FY26 it sent 30 lakh tonnes for pellet job work, up from 7 lakh tonnes the year before, while its own 1.2 MTPA Donimalai pellet plant remains small.
2. Coal: the first diversification that actually produces
NMDC has started mining thermal coal from its Tokisud North block in Jharkhand and expects to open a coking-coal block next, adding a second mineral to a company built on iron ore.
- Two allocated blocks in Jharkhand - Tokisud North (thermal coal, 2.30 million tonnes per annum capacity) began production in January 2026, and the Rohne coking-coal block is slated to open in FY27, giving the company a foothold in both power and steel-making coal.
- A legacy coal stake in Mozambique - through its 25.94% holding in International Coal Ventures, NMDC has indirect exposure to the Benga coking-coal project and other exploration assets in Africa, though this is an associate investment rather than an operated mine.
3. Other minerals and international exploration: small volumes, long optionality
Diamonds from Panna, early-stage rare-earth partnerships, and a network of overseas subsidiaries hunting for iron ore, gold and lithium - collectively less than 2% of revenue but carrying the company’s multi-mineral ambition.
- South Asia’s only mechanised diamond mine - the Panna project in Madhya Pradesh produces rough diamonds for gem and jewellery use, with output of around 14,000-29,000 carats a year, making it a unique asset with no domestic parallel.
- Rare earths are a declared priority - a dedicated subsidiary has been created and a non-binding MoU signed with Gujarat Mineral Development Corporation to explore an integrated rare-earth value chain from mining through to downstream manufacturing, though no production exists yet.
- Australia is the main overseas bet - the 92.84%-owned subsidiary Legacy Iron Ore holds 21 exploration tenements in Western Australia for iron ore, gold, tungsten and base metals, has started gold mining at Mount Celia, and has joint ventures with Hancock Prospecting to unlock magnetite and lithium resources.
Group structure and partners
A government-majority parent with a listed steel spin-off, a cluster of domestic joint ventures that extend the mining footprint, and international subsidiaries that carry the exploration risk.
- 60.79% owned by the President of India - the company is a Navratna CPSE under the Ministry of Steel, with LIC holding a further 4.89% and the rest publicly traded on the BSE and NSE.
- NMDC Steel Limited is the separated sibling - the 3 MTPA Nagarnar steel plant was demerged in October 2022 into a separately listed entity, with NMDC shareholders receiving one share of the new company for each share held; NMDC now supplies iron ore to it under a long-term agreement and has acted as a distributor for its HR coils.
- The NMDC-CMDC joint venture opens new iron ore deposits - a 51%-owned partnership with the Chhattisgarh government that brought Deposit 4 into production in FY26 and will open Deposit 13 next, together planned to add 28 million tonnes of capacity.
- International subsidiaries carry the exploration book - Legacy Iron Ore (Australia, 91-93%), a South African JV under closure, and a Madagascar subsidiary also under closure, plus a newly approved vehicle in GIFT City for international financial operations.
- Key partnerships fill capability gaps - a 30-year land lease with RINL at nominal rent, an MoU with the Colorado School of Mines for research in AI and mineral processing, and a non-binding rare-earths collaboration with GMDC.