NMDC Limited (NMDC) Q4 2026 Earnings Call Transcript

Ladies and gentlemen, good day, and welcome to NMDC Ltd. Q4 and FY26 Earning Conference Call hosted by Philip Chapital. As a reminder, all participant lines will be in listen-only mode, and there will be an opportunity for you to ask questions after the presentation concludes. Should you need assistance during the conference call, please signal an operator by pressing star, then zero on your touchstone phone. I now hand the conference over to Mr. Suman Kumar from Phillip Capital. Thank you, and over to you, sir.

Thank you, operator, and welcome everyone to the call. I first thank NMDC for giving Phillip Capital the opportunity to host today's call. We have with us from the management today, Sri Amitav Mukherjee, the Chairman, Come, Managing Director. I am joined, along with Mr. Anurag Kapil, Director of Finance, NMDC. Without further ado, I would like to hand over the conference to Amitav, sir, for his opening remarks. And after this, we can open the floor for Q&A. Over to you, sir.

Well, good morning, everybody, and thank you for joining. As you know, that NMDC's performance in FY26 has been rather encouraging. We have touched 553 billion tons of production. We have crossed that. Our sales revenue has grown to 31,000. And we are all now ready for the Maharatna status of this company because now we fulfill all the requirements of a Maharatna company. And despite slightly sluggish prices, we have been able to achieve a 11% growth in PAT. And all our financial indices and operating indices have been rather encouraging. I believe that this sets the foundation for us to achieve 100 million tons by the end of this decade. And in that journey, I think this year we will be targeting 60 million tons, which we hope to achieve. The good news is that the more encouraging thing is that we have been able to open a coal mine in Jharkhand, which gives us a new mineral as well as a new geography. And after 50 years, we have been able to open iron ore mine, that is deposit 4, in Bailadila. That is, of course, under the NCL banner, NMDC-CMDC banner, where we have 51% stake. And very soon, we hope that we will be opening the other, this financial year, we hope to open the other iron ore mine, which is in deposit 13, and also the Rohane coal block in Jharkhand, which is a cooking coal block. So, there is a lot of action that is happening, and obviously, we are also pursuing assets abroad. A few of them are in very advanced stages of acquisition. Obviously, we cannot disclose the details because of confidentiality agreements, but this year, we hope to acquire a couple of assets abroad as well. And the capex this year has been around 3,300 cores, which is an all-time high capex. Because if you leave out the land acquisition this time, and we hope that this year we will be able to substantially increase our capex, almost double the capex now, because all our expansion plans right now are on the ground. We have to award a couple of them. Rest of them are already under execution. So we are well on our way to get to 100 million tons by the end of the decade. And my colleague, Mr. Anwarak Kapil, Director of Finance, is also here. He might like to add something.

As CMDs have just mentioned, they have surpassed all the expectations and crossed the magical figure of the production, which is 50 million ton. The growth of around 20 to 30 percent in various parameters is really a pathway which will be making it possible to achieve 100 million ton by 2030. And the more important part is the diversification path of NMDC, which is like, as James has just mentioned, regarding coal and other minerals. Also, the acquisitions of various minerals abroad. We have also opened a subsidiary for rare earths.

We have actually also opened a subsidiary which is now completely dedicated to rare earth and other critical minerals. So we are taking those critical requirements of the country very seriously and we hope to achieve breakthrough in that as well very soon.

We will now begin the question and answer session. Anyone who wishes to ask a question may press star and 1 on their touch-tone telephone. If you wish to remove yourself from the question queue, you may press star and 2. Participants are requested to use handset while asking a question. Ladies and gentlemen will wait for a moment while the question queue assembles. First question is from the line of Mr. Amit Dixit from Goldman Sachs. Please go ahead.

And thanks. Thank you for the opportunity. First of all, congratulations for a great performance, particularly on the operational front, achieving above 50 million tons of production and sales. A couple of questions. The first one is NMDC steel, you know, if it's possible to mention the volumes, and since now, you know, it's going to be a substantial portion of our revenue. So, would appreciate if we can give the, you know, quantity sold by us in the presentation. But for this quarter, if you can let us know the quantity that we sold and also what are the basic terms for this because this number appears in cost as well as, you know, revenue. So just wanted to get a little bit of more clarity on this for projection purpose.

Okay, so this was essentially an arrangement made for a very specific requirement of NMDC steel. Where they were facing cash flow, so we stepped in and we were doing trading business with the HR coils of LMDC Steel. In Q1, there is not going to be any trading right now. That is essentially a special mechanism, as and when, if there is a cash flow issue at LMDC Steel, and we generally tend to step in. We are going to have some work that we can make, to buy HR coil and then sell it in the market. However, because at that time, NNPC Steel was, as you know, under the same management and at that time the marketing was being done by sale. And there was a lag in payment of, in realization of materials sold. So at that time we had to step in but I don't think that, that would be triggered right now. Because that was a very low volume business. If you see our EBITDA has come down from 42 percent to 33 percent, essentially because of steel business. If we take this iron ore business standalone, our EBITDA is still at 42 percent. So that is not changed. But because of the steel business in the last quarter that we had to do, which was essentially trading, the EBITDA has come down. That was a one-time measure. I do not think that this quarter, definitely it is not required. Maybe this financial year it will be very rarely used, if at all, if it is required. Yes, Amit. Okay, sir.

Got it, sir. So the second question is essentially on conversation for opening deposit for, I think, after a long time, finally we see it getting, you know, under two years. Yeah, so just wanted to understand the deposit for capacity when we will hit the rated mining capacity and also deposit 14. That's also a very welcome thing. And on coal mines, you know, Rone had took, so how do we see the production ramping up? If you can detail it out, sir, that would be great.

Deposit 4, as you know, we have already opened and we are now installing the infrastructure. We hope to have commercial mining commencing on July, in Q2. And this year, I think the guidance would be around 1 million ton out of deposit 4. So, and next year it will be 2 million ton, followed by, once the infrastructure is all ready, by another one and a half, two years, then it will be wrapped up to 7 million ton, which is the peak rated capacity of deposit 4. Deposit 13, because we are still awaiting some clearances, which we hope that we will be able to commence, start the mine somewhere around in Q2. Followed by monsoon. So I don't think that we should be able to, we will be able to do more than 0.5 million ton out of deposit 13. But next year we will do around 2 million ton out of deposit 13. And then the peak rated capacity initially is 10 million ton. But we plan to ramp it up to 20 to 21 million ton in 4 to 5 years time. So, that is the iron ore. Regarding coal, Tokisud, as you know, is already operational. We are removing OB. By this month end, or maybe in Q2, we should be able to hit the coal seam, and we should be able to now extract coal by Q2. And our guidance for Q2 would be around 0.75 million ton to 1 million ton of coal this year. So it is a peak related, as you know, in Tokyo is 2.3 million ton. Rohane, of course, will take some time to open up because lots of approvals are still pending. We plan to open it around late Q3. And, uh... This year we don't see envisage any production out of Rohane because the overburden removal etc will have to be carried out once the mine is opened. But Rohane would open around Q3, end of Q3.

Great, sir. Thanks a lot for the details and all the best.

Thank you. Next question is from the line of Shubh Mangal Nevetia from Kotak Securities. Please go ahead.

Yeah, good morning. Thanks. Thanks for the chance. So first on the guidance of 60 million ton, can you guide mine wise, where are we expecting the incremental 10 odd million tons? Yeah.

Yeah, deposit 14 will get one extra, and deposit NMZ, deposit NMZ will get one extra. So that's two million ton extra as compared to last year. And Kumar Swamy will be getting around 1.3 extra because it has a peak credit capacity of 10, and last year we had this MPAP imposed for 8.6, which I hope that we will be able to get around, so that's around.

Understood, understood. Sir, when deposit 4 ramps up, will that be replacing the supply which we are currently doing to the steel plant?

No, these are all fungible. These are all fungible. It is not… Nothing is linked to any mine. No plant is linked to any mine. These supplies are fungible. Depends on the production, depends on the quality, depends on the requirement of the seed, and most importantly, depends on the logistics at that point of time. For example, today we are supplying to NSL from Kirandul as well as from Baccheli. We are supplying material from deposit 14 and deposit 11, deposit 5 also, deposit 10 also. So the supplies are fungible.

Understood. Sir, can you explain the economics of the coal mine, what would be depending on the grade, the price, all the duties, levies, and overall profitability?

I think... You should be... So that will fetch a substantially higher prices than the...

Okay. Sir, what will be the grade and, I mean, in terms of royalty and all the government duties, what are our liabilities?

G10.

Okay.

If I remember correctly, it is G10, the grade.

Understood, understood. Sir, with respect to RINL, I mean, how confident we are on the recovery of all the receivables, and we're paying around 1,500 crores for the land lease, 1,800 acres. So can you explain what is the use of such a big land parcel?

We have already sanctioned investment of around 3,000 crores for creation of a blending yard. You see, in India, no company has ever manufactured or supplied branded iron ore. Unlike in the international market, we have Rio Tinto selling RTX and RTF and BHP selling Jim Lover Fines and Newman High and... Wale Selling, IOCJ, these are all branded iron ore. So, India has never tasted that. So, NMDC will be the first company in three years' time to be selling branded iron ore. And the board has already sanctioned an investment proposal for 3,000 crores approximately for making a blending yard at Vizac, where we will be making this blended iron ore of a consistent quality, which India has never seen. So, we expect that to be a game changer in factory in the iron ore. Market in India. So that's a real big thing. Apart from that, of course, we'll have a pellet plant there in due course of time. Once the study pipeline, once the mode of the study pipeline is decided and we have also kept a land parcel for other purposes like making a lithium refinery or something as and when we get some mines abroad or any other critical mineral processing zone that might be required because we are aggressively looking for other minerals as well and we require processing area and that is a port-based area. It's a wonderful land parcel of around 1100 acres. So, I think all these future expansion plans is dependent completely on the VISA plan parcel. We have big plans. One board has already sanctioned 3,000.

Understood. Just one last question, is it possible to share over what time do we expect to recover all the receivables and the dues from NSL and RINL?

NSL now it has become profitable as you are aware that NSL has become profitable. This year we expect much greater profits because most of the Except for the one or two. I guess it should take about... So, 700 has already been liquidated and deployed. Thank you.

Understood. Thank you, sir, and all the best.

Thank you. Next question is from the line of Vikas Singh from ICICI Securities. Please go ahead.

Good morning, sir, and thank you for the opportunity. So I just wanted to understand any threshold which we have in order in terms of credit to RINL or on a good face it will continue.

No, it will continue as of now as it is done. You see, RINL is, we have an arrangement of bill discounting with RINL. So, we obviously are getting that money with 45 days lag. And they are over and above what they are consuming. They are paying around 10% extra for that. So, the liquidation process is on, but it is a little slow. But you see from the business perspective, they consume seven to eight million tons of our product and are located in a very strategic place. So both in terms of the importance of the customer and the location, the logistic convenience, that is one company we cannot afford not to supply. Because that will immediately affect our production if supplies there are constrained. So it is neither in our interest to curtail the supplies nor in their interest to have lesser supplies. So accordingly we are... Good morning, everyone.

No, sir. Sir, my second question pertains to our logistics. Has the railway doubling of railway land been completed, and if not, then by what time it would get completed, and how much extra evacuation it can provide?

Out of 31 kilometers, only two sections are left. One section is expected to be completed this month end, and one final section that is between... Bhansi and Bacheli will get completed in the month of December because there are a couple of bridges that needs to be constructed there. So by December we will be able to do it. Once it is done and now also, you see, we are doing on an average more than 20 rakes. Thank you.

Sir, our guidance of 60 million, then is it contingent on the completion of this railway line or even without this we can actually dispatch up to 60 million?

We will not be able to do 100 without this, but 60 we can.

So, lastly, on our capex side, basically, for the critical minister or the other, just two parts, firstly, has the government told us anything that we would get in the India on a nomination basis or we have to bid like anybody else, and secondly, do we looking at the abroad and with critical minister investment, and what is the total amount to which we think would be comfortable investing in this?

Now, let's take this in three parts. Well, critical windows and... We are confident of having too many leases. Of course, we have entered into an MOU with, as you know, with the Gujarat Mineral Development Corporation, and they have... Thank you. It will be up. We don't have anything complete on the table, except for the... Except for that, it is more that we are aggressively looking for it. We are scouting assets. So it will be very difficult to give you a guidance about... We know that Rare Earth and other critical minerals are the future, and as a mining company, and as a national mining company, and as an all-mineral company, National Mineral Development Corporation.

I am not asking for the guidance on the profitability. Since we are looking abroad, what I was looking actually is the amount of capex which we are comfortable spending. So any threshold on the maximum capex which would go for the critical mineral site?

That is again a very speculative thing. It depends on the assets that we finally are... We are looking at a lot of efforts. How many of them will reach the last stage, we are not very sure. Calculation is wherever we stand today, as of today.

I think the prices would be more or less stabilized.

Because if you see the steel prices were very strong after December, and up to December, January, February, the steel prices were very, very... And I think...

But once you would see a sharp increase in your FDGL registration, right, because of the lag effect of the price rise, which you have taken.

Light lag is always there, because we take into consideration a lot of other factors as well, while deciding our prices. Good morning, everyone. So these are multiple variables come into play, and to say that there's an absolute lag, I don't think it would be a very accurate. Thank you.

That's all for my advice. Thank you for answering them, and all the best for future.

Thank you. Next question is from the line of Siddharth Gadekar from Equirus. Please go ahead. Mr. Siddharth, please go ahead. As there is no response, the next question is from the line of Mr. Vineet Thakur from Plus91 Asset Management. Please go ahead.

Hi, sir. Congratulations. A great set of numbers. Sir, I just needed a clarity on the other operating revenue from HR Coils. Would it be a continuing effect going forward or it was just a trading effect from NMDC's team?

That I had already mentioned in the answer to the first question that it was essentially the trading of steel business was essentially a temporary measure. It's been done and dusted. We have had no transaction of that sort in Q1 as of date. We don't see any transaction happening in Q1 this year. And hopefully such transaction would be very minimal if at all it happens this year. So, I think I've already answered that previously, and that is that.

Sir, what will be our capex going forward for next two to three years?

This year, we expect capex of around five to six thousand cores. That is what my onus is. And going forward, the next two, three years, it will be in the range of 7 to 10,000 crores every year for the next two, three years. Because you see, most of the works are under execution and a couple of major works are just under award. I think we should be able to award those major tenders worth around 15,000, 16,000 crores or 20,000 crores by the end of this month or maximum next month. So, these will come into peak execution stage about next year only. So, this year, the guidance will be around 6,000 to 7,000 quotes. 6,000 quotes will be more realistic. And next year on, maybe we should be able to touch the magic figure of 9,000 to 10,000 quotes. So, the idea is that we have to spend this 40,000, 50,000 quotes within the next three years to reach Good morning, everyone. We have the desired capacity level of 100 million tons, and we are right now completely free.

In order to reach 100, would we be adding new mines or doing an opacity expansion in the existing ones? What would be a pathway?

Kirandol, for example, has done last year around 21 million tons. Kirandol is expected to go up to 30 million tons by the end of the decade. Bachiri did around 18 million tons, 18-19 million tons. That will go up to 35 million tons by the end of the decade. And apart from that, the Karnataka sector will stabilize at 17 million tons because of regulatory issues, because of we will be... That is deposit 4 and deposit 10 in another 3 to 4 years, which will reach peak rated capacity.

One last question. You mentioned about blended iron ore as a next potential game changer for the company. Could you just expand more on that? How and when would we be able to...

Not only be a game changer for the company, it will be a game changer for the country in the way it consumes iron ore. You see, worldwide what happens is that most of the iron ore that is sold is branded in the sense that specifications are... Thank you. Of a particular... And then mix various types of iron ore to come to an absolutely very narrow band of specifications which does not change. And that is what you call a branded iron ore. So you have IOCJ from, let us say, . We have studied this phenomena for the last three years. The board has sanctioned 3000 cores for the blending yard at BISAC, and that will be our first... The branded iron ore from there, which I'm sure will fetch a substantial premium in the market because it increases blast process efficiency very substantially.

And sir, could you explain the process of how do you achieve the lending process? Like, is it a special, there has to be some, I would have zero idea how to, how would this economics of this work?

Standard process is followed worldwide.

Okay.

So, Kuala has a huge blending yard, let us say, at Malaysia in Sohar, in Malaysia and in Oman. So, there is a process which is not very cumbersome. You just, you have different stockpiles of different grades, and then decide on how that, what would be the recipe for mixing. And it is something that is done everywhere. It is done in Australia, it is done in Malaysia, it is done in small... People are not there in India, and we are bringing that work. We had procured that huge parcel of land there, more than a third, almost half of that land would be used for this blending yard purposes.

Thank you so much.

Thank you. Next question is from the line of Tishar Chaudhary from Prabhudas Leeladhar Private Limited. Please go ahead.

Yeah, good morning, sir. Congratulations on a great set of numbers and the achievements on volumes. So, I just wanted to continue on your discussion on deposit 14 and NMZ 11 million Thank you. Thank you. So, all the capex which you have talked about, downhill conveyor and new crushing plants at deposit 14 and deposit 5, are these both completed as of now, or it will be, we will complete it by the end of this year?

Sir, deposit 14 and NMZ, additional 1-1 would be through our existing infrastructure only. We have applied to traditional EC for 1 million ton in both these mines. And we expect to get them, and we will be actually sweating our existing assets to achieve this. So, that is without. Of course, the new infrastructure that is being built for deposit 14 and 14 NMZ and 11 and 11C, it will take another year and a half to get completed. Of course, at that time, the production capacity would increase substantially by 5 to 6 million tons. The rest of it, of course, unless after a switch key, the further increase would be on NSL or only after the infrastructure is completed in NSL.

Right. Sir, and the pellet plants which we talked about at WISAC, what is the status on that?

The pellet plant is essentially on a drawing board stage. The pellet plant and the strani pipeline will get commissioned by end of June or maybe at best in July. The 15 million tons strani pipeline that we are building from Baccheli to Nagarnar and the pellet plant at Nagarnar and the grinding mill at Baccheli, this entire system will get commissioned by this month end or maybe by around mid-July. That is what we are looking at. They are currently in pre-commissioning trials. Once these pre-commissioning trials are started and the heating is started, I think the mechanical completion of the plants is over. The mechanical completion of the pipeline is also over. So, various pre-commissioning trials and testings are being done. And then we'll go in for the commissioning, I think, by the month end or something. And the vizaxal implant, of course, it is only at an ideation stage. We will build one, but first we need to sort out our... Thank you.

Sir, this KICL 3 million ton which we are running, right, that is running at what utilization now?

Last year we did around 2.2 million ton, if I am correct, 2.4 million ton I think we did last year. This year we plan to do around 3 million ton, and we are trying to make again for the first time in India a DR gate pellet. We have already achieved around 66.5 million, sorry, 66.5 percent FE content pellet that we have already achieved. The idea is to get DR-Gate pellets made out of there. Hopefully, by Q2, we should be able to have a...

Okay, sir. And lastly, on customer side, are we tying up incremental plans? A few of the existing customers have formed JVs and what any status over there? Will we be supplying to those plans?

There has been a huge amount of capacity expansion in the secondary sector in the Raipur area where we are the dominant supplier. I think a huge number of new plants have come in last year and capacities of existing plants have also been substantially increased. That's one. I think our big customers have huge expansion plants. All are big customers with the JSW or AMNS. or JSPL or now NFL and VISAC is also performing to optimal level, and all our existing customers have very substantial expansion plans. So I don't think demand would be ever a problem Thank you very much.

The question is from the line of Rajesh Bhandari from Nakoda Engineers. Please go ahead.

Congratulations, sir, for the very good numbers.

Thank you.

Yeah, sir, as you explained that in 2027, we will be coming up to 60 million tons. And then end of the decade, you said 100 million tons. Then we are left with 2028 and 29 and 30. Will we be able to come to 40 million ton expansion?

Oh, yes, most of these are either under execution or under the final stages of award. So deposit 5 will go up from 12 million ton to 20 million ton. The works are already done. So, I, I... So, this 40 million ton, the infrastructure for that is being created, and we are following this up very, very intensely. So, I think going to 100 million ton by the end of the decade is something that is evidently possible.

And will you get the market of 100 million ton, sir?

I just answered my last question that market is never a problem for NMDC. My big customers who are defined customers like JSW, like AMNS. AMNS is coming up with 10 million tons, 7 plus 10, 17 million tons, 40 kilometers from BISAC, ISP. JSW is increasing its capacity.

But they are coming with their own mining also, sir?

It doesn't matter, but our product they will still require because their requirement is huge. They cannot meet there through their own mines and they cannot meet it only exclusively through NMDC. We have studied that.

Yes, yes, yes. No, no, that selling 100 million is not a problem. It's a very good news, sir. It's a very good news, even for the investors and for NMDC.

Sir, our phosphorus is not. Yes, sir. So, you need that.

Sir, I know NMGC very well. I was working with McNally Barrett.

Very nice.

Sir, I know NMGC is one of the best iron ore company. No doubt about it. Sir, the blending of what exactly we will be doing, sir? And where we will be selling?

Thank you, Y-back gives us... We have a coastal market on the western side, which is being serviced through WISAC today. So, so it's by that, through by that, I have... The liberty of assessing the local market as well, as well as the entire coastal market, the coastal...

In India. In India.

In India.

Are there any chance to export?

No, 30% export duty, it doesn't make too much of a sense to do that. If we have export, it should be...

But do we have the permission kind of a thing?

We don't need any permission. You pay the duty and you do it 30 percent, but it doesn't make economic sense.

Yeah, yeah, it doesn't make economical sense. I agree, sir. I agree. Sir, sir, I have a question on coal mines. This is where is the coking coal? Where is the Danbad area?

Both my mines are located 12 kilometers from each other. It is in the Hazaribad district. So, they are located 12 kilometers from each other, there is a lot of synergy.

And this will be, this will be open-cast or underground?

Both are open-cast mines. Both Toki Sun and Rohan are open-cast mines.

Sir, achcha, because Ganbad basically BCCL is as it is a totally underground mines.

Really, they are all open-cast mines, and within three years you will have a whole... Top line of sales of not less than 5,000 to 8,000.

Yes, sir, I'm telling you, open cash will be fun, sir. Yes, mining cost will be very low. It's a very good news, sir. When will this production come?

We have opened it, that's 2.3 million tons.

That is normal, that is normal mine.

That is a normal thermal coal, but that's still profitable. And the cooking coal will start the, we hope to start the operation by end of Q3, because certain.

You mean to say Q3FY27?

Rajesh sir.

Only this last question. And what capacity is going to happen sir? Cooking call is what capacity will be?

Peak credit capacity is 8 million dollars. 8?

Oh, my God. Oh, very good, sir. Congratulations and all the best.

Thank you. Thank you.

Thank you. Next question is from the line of Suman Kumar from Philip Capital. Please go ahead.

Good afternoon, sir. My first question would pertain to just for everyone to understand what would be the current total EC capacity of NMDC as on day and in FI 27 in this financial year, where can we look at our EC capacity by let's say FI 27 exist? That would be the first question. And second question, can we throw some color regarding the exact prospects of legacy of what is exactly happening in Australia and whether that gold mining that we had talked about, what is the current status and. The abroad investments. The existing abroad investments.

Right. Regarding the EC capacity, you must know that there are two things in EC capacity. One is EC per se. The other is the operational aspect, which is called the CTO or consent to operate. Now, we have an EC capacity of 64.8, but a CTO of around 55.4. We have asked for an enhancement of CTO in three places to about 3.32. So we'll have a CTO of around 58.8, and which is exactly what we want to do this year. So if you know that in FY26, for the record and for the understanding, all our minds touch the EC capacity except one deposit five. That too, because we got the enhancement in deposit in EC late in the late through the year, but as on 1st April EC, we have touched the EC capacity of all the mines, and that is the first time that has happened for any company in India. In India, all the mines owned by a company touching EC, it has never happened in iron ore. So, we did that, and this year, we expect to repeat. Once we get the CTO of around 58.8, we expect to repeat that feed this year. So, this is a unique and a very commendable feed, which has never, ever happened. So, this year, I am sure that we will be able to do it. As you know, our production, as compared to last year, for the first two months, is around 15 percent higher. So, we have already touched almost 10 million tons in the first two months, as against 8.2 or something last year. This month itself, I think, we have already declared to the stock exchange, I guess. So, I can say this. Today is first. We have done 5.3 million tons against what we did 4.4 million tons last year. So, we are well on our way to achieve 60 million tons. For the first time, we have touched a 5 million ton in Q1. We have crossed 5 million ton in one month production in Q1. So, 58 would be our CTO against ECR 64, and we are confident that we will touch this. Apart from NCL would be around 1.5 million ton, as I said, deposit 14 and, sorry, deposit 4 and deposit 13. So, that's the game plan for this year. Regarding legacy, we had produced, as per our requirement, gold for the last two years. This year, the operations just broke even. But now, we have curtailed our production, and we are now actually going full hog on exploration and proving of further assets, because we have realized that giving the gold prices... You have your own refinery. Making it very profitable becomes very difficult there. So... Definer is there. So we need a refinery there, and for that, we need... Enjoy me.

Sir, and in terms of the job work arrangement for our pellets with KIOCL, does that continue, and what are the prospects of transitioning to high-grade pellets? Can you please show some follow-up?

We have already got 66.5 grade FE. We have sold a couple of consignment on that. The idea is to come to around 67 grade FE. We will be doing, we did around 2.4 or 2.6 million ton last year. This year we will go 3 to 3.3 million tons this year, and the idea is to be able to make 67 grade perlet, which is the DR grade perlet, and then will be the first time to make it in India. We expect the current premia is around 20 to 30 dollars for the DR grade perlet, and that is what we are targeting to achieve that.

Thank you, sir.

Thank you. Next question is from the line of Netra Deshpande from Mireya Asset, Chair Khan. Please go ahead.

Yeah, am I audible?

Yes.

Yeah. Congratulations, sir, for the great set of numbers and a new launching segment of coal and other minerals. My first question is about the case at least domestic iono realization that slightly declined 2%. Hello. Yeah, so based on the ongoing expansions and the strong order pipeline, which is there. So can you please give the guidance for the EBITDA pattern and the blended iono realization pattern for FY27 on a quantified basis?

I don't think there is going to be this financial year, especially this quarter. I don't think there is to be any volatility either upside or the downside. So this will be a range-bound movement around this time also. And we expect to have to maintain our EBITDA at around 42 to 43 percent this year. This is our expectation.

Okay, okay, sir. And, sir, about the higher employee cost due to the government pay revisions. So, any other kind of contractions in the margin, sahit, that you are looking for?

Sorry, I just have to send you a question. Please repeat your question.

Yeah, about the higher employee cost, which is expected due to the government pay revisions in the next year. So FY27, that is going to get adjusted. So what would be the any other kind of impact on the contractions?

I think most of our employees are in non-executive pattern. Their pay revision is being worked out right now, it is under the consideration of the ministry, but we always account for the high-end wages, it has already been provided for. The increased amount of wages is already provided for in the books of accounts, and so there is not going to be any large-scale effect on that, because whatever has been proposed for enhancement has already been accounted for from 1126 itself. So there is not going to be any marginal effect on that. So far as the executive is concerned, yes, our executive are lesser in number, it is only around about 1100. We will be providing for that from 1127, start providing for that. I think the impact would be not very substantial. We've been able to curtail our, in fact, bring down our production cost from our thousand odd rupees per ton in Baccheli, in Bailadila, to around 800 tonne rupees per tonne this year, and we expect to have more such efficiency gains, and we expect to reduce our cost per tonne even more, and the... The effect would essentially be very marginal, very marginal.

Okay.

It will be opted by efficiency. Okay, okay.

Then what is the, what would be the debt level positions, like you have, like debt positions would be for the FI27, it would be like...

As of now, there are no immediate plans for leveraging our balance sheet. The current visibility is that we should be able to service all our capex and acquisition requirements through internal resources. That is the visibility. Thank you. I think we are fairly comfortable in terms of servicing our capex requirements and current Okay, so got it.

And so my last question is about the environmental clearance. As like expansions which are happening about the key concern, there are a lot of projects like Bachelia and Deo Miles. So what would be the timeline for the receiving any approvals? So can you have some, can you share some insights on that?

I think we will have them well before these expansion projects. We'll have that. We'll have that goes in place well in time. If we, in a mining company, you see it's a continuous process, asking for enhancement of environmental capacity and then asking for forest clearances. It's a continuous process, sometimes you require it for dumping, sometimes you require it for excavation, sometimes you require it for others. It's a continuous process, I don't think that is what it is. Thank you.

Sir, and last it is coalmine timeline. Can you please expected ramp up timeline at annual volume target for FY27 for coalmine? Can you please tell again what would be the definition?

Tokisod is for about 1 million ton for coal. Rohanaya, I don't think we'll go, it'll, the mine will start in Q3, but there will be no commercial production, because there will be a lot of overburden removal, etc. The P-graded capacity, we expect to achieve in one and a half years to two years maximum. Tokisod, it'll be 2.3 million tons, and Rohanaya, it'll be 8 million tons.

Thank you so much, sir.

Due to time constraint, that was the last question of the day. I now hand the conference over to management for closing comments.

Yeah, I think the Director of Finance, Mr. Amra Kapil, would make the closing comments. I might have missed something which he would like to add, and I request Kapil to please make the closing comments.

As you have already heard that... The company, NMDC is on that path of 100 billion times with proper planning. And in all probabilities, all the questions have been answered very, very satisfactorily. The performance in all the things like production, revenue from operation, profit before tax, profit after tax, and sales have surpassed all the expectations this time. I really thank all the... Thank you very much for the investors for the productive questions, and I hope that all of them have been answered satisfactorily. I have nothing more to add on that because almost everything is covered. Our performance is covered, our future plans are covered, our foreign acquisitions are covered, and our diversification in both coal and other minerals is also covered.

Thank you. On behalf of Philips Capital Private Limited, that concludes this conference. Thank you for joining us, and you may now disconnect your lines.