Paswan in New Delhi on Thursday. (PTI)

New Delhi, May 24: Steel minister Ram Vilas Paswan today said there was sufficient iron ore in the country to meet the requirements of Posco.

The Korean company is setting up a 12mt steel plant in Orissa and will invest $12 billion in the project, the single largest foreign direct investment in the country.

The minister said since the availability of the ore was not a problem, MNCs could also explore the possibility of projects in regions that are not rich in the ore.

He said as many as 173 MoUs have been signed by the state governments with foreign steel companies.

The projected investment is Rs 500,000 crore and the companies are expected to create a capacity of 196mt.

“Even if a part of this intended capacity is realised, the demands on raw materials and infrastructure facilities will be huge,” the minister said. Paswan said his ministry was opposed to a ban on export of the ore. The government wanted to regulate the exports to make the ore available locally. He said discussions were on among the Jharkhand government, the mines ministry and SAIL regarding the lease of the Chiria mines.

Bowing to the pressure from the Jharkhand government, SAIL has decided to produce more steel in the state and raise the capacity of the Burnpur plant of IISCO Steel. The Jharkhand government had told SAIL that it was willing to let the public sector company access the Chiria mines if it is for capacity expansion only within Jharkhand and in Burnpur, Bengal.

“The state (Jharkhand) government has told us that they are willing to allocate iron ore from the Chiria leases for any capacity expansion in Jharkhand and Burnpur,” SAIL chairman S.K. Roongta said. In the original plan, SAIL wanted to raise the capacity of the Burnpur plant to 3.2mt and Bokaro Steel, which is in Jharkhand, to 7.5mt.