364 DRIVING SELF-SUFFICIENCY IN COKING COAL: INNOVATIVE APPROACH TO OPTIMISE INDIGENOUS RESOURCE AND REDUCE IMPORT Rajesh Kumar Washery Construction Division, Bharat Coking Coal Ltd., Dhanbad, Jharkhand, 826005, India (rajesh.kumar@coalindia.in) ABSTRACT India’s National Steel Policy 2017 aims for a steel production capacity of 300 million tonnes per annum (Mtpa) by 2030-31, with an anticipated 181 Mtpa coming from the blast furnace route, which will require 136 Mtpa of coking coal (with an ash content of 10-11%). Since the Blast Furnace-Basic Oxygen Furnace (BF-BOF) process contributes to 60-65% of crude steel production, the demand for indigenous metallurgical clean coal is estimated to be between 27.2 and 40.8 Mtpa. The remaining 40-35% of steel will be produced from secondary sources through Electric Arc Furnace (EAF) and Induction Furnace (IF) route using scrap steel or direct reduced iron (DRI). Although India has 37.4 billion tonnes of coking coal reserves, only 5.3 billion tonnes are classified as prime coking coal, while the remainder consists of medium and semi-coking coal. In the fiscal year 2024-25, India produced 66.5 Mtpa of coking coal, with 40% categorised as high ash washery grades, WV and VI coal. However, only 5.9 Mtpa of indigenous metallurgical clean coal is utilised, resulting in import of 57.6 Mtpa of coking coal. The challenges are poor raw coal quality, outdated washeries and inefficient beneficiation processes leads to diversion of these high ash coals (over 35%) to thermal power plants, thereby wasting valuable coking coal. The Jharia and Bokaro coalfields, which contain approximately 90% of India’s coking coal, are experiencing depletion of good-quality coal, leaving behind lower seams that are more difficult to clean. This paper suggests optimised beneficiation flow sheets using LIMN modelling, utilising washability data from Jharia coalfields to maximise clean coal recovery and reduce reliance on imports. KEYWORDS National Steel Policy, Blast Furnace, Prime Coking Coal, Jharia & Bokaro Coalfields, LIMN Simulation, Washability Characteristics, Import Substitution. 1. INTRODUCTION Coking coal is an essential raw material for the iron and steel industry, particularly for steel production through the blast furnace route. In 2024-25, India imported 243.6 Mt (million tonnes) coal worth $29.6 billion USD, out of which, coking coal import was only 23.6% in quantity but 41% in value. It must be noted that, there was demand for around 90 Mt coking coal during the financial year of which only ~70% could be fulfilled. While indigenous production of coking coal was 66.5 Mt, India imported 57.6 Mt of coking coal; whereas, only 5.9 Mt of indigenous metallurgical washed coal was utilised in the steel sector. A trend
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