India’s mineral production from mining and quarrying grew 5.9% year-on-year, a Press Information Bureau (PIB) report said on Wednesday.
The country produced over 99.8 million tonnes of coal in the period on the back of rising power demand.
India, the world’s second-largest coal user, generated record-high coal-fired electricity in January as rising demand for air conditioning meant that power generation firms did not make big cuts to the use of coal and other fossil fuels.
Other minerals such as iron ore, a key raw material for steel, reported a nearly 41% year-on-year growth in sales value amid growing steel demand in the country. India produced 25.2 million tonnes of iron ore in the month.
The PIB release also showed that the production of minerals such as Magnesite – used to make synthetic rubber – grew over 90%, and copper concentrate – used to make refined copper – grew over 34%.
India’s refined copper production is estimated at around 555,000 million tonnes per year in the coming fiscal year while domestic consumption is expected to come in at more than 750,000 metric tons.
