Kudremukh Iron Ore Company
 | |
| PSU | |
| Industry | Mining |
| Founded | 1976 |
| Headquarters |
 Mangalore, India |
Key people | Malay Chatterjee Chairman and MD |
| Products | Iron ore concentrates and iron oxide pellets |
| Revenue |
 INR 3.637 billion (2006-07) |
| Website | http://kioclltd.com |
Kudremukh Iron Ore Company Ltd is a Government of India enterprise with its head office in Bangalore. It has iron ore mines in Kudremukh (Chikkamagaluru district) on the Western Ghats and a pelletisation plant in Mangalore. The Kudremukh mine is one of the largest iron ore mines in the world.
The administrative activities of KIOCL are carried out from Bangalore. The mining takes place at western ghats at Kudremukh. The mined ore is transported through water pipelines running through the districts of Udupi and Dakshina Kannada up to the plant in Panambur, adjacent to the premises of New Mangalore Port in Mangalore. The ore is pelletised in the pelletisation plant. The pellets are shipped to countries like China, Iran, Japan, and Taiwan.
The pellet plant with a capacity of 3 million tons per annum was commissioned at Mangalore in 1987. Later on the capacity was increased to 4 million tons per year.
Controversies
The mining lease was given to KIOCL in Kudremukh for a period of 25 years and was supposed to be closed by December 2001. However, it had to face the ire of environmentalists as Kudremukh area is a biodiversity hotspot. There is a Kudremukh national park nearby. The mining lease was temporarily extended. However, it was completely stopped in December 2005. Now the plant runs on ores supplied by National Mineral Development Corporation Ltd. (NMDC). There is a plan to merge with NMDC and the issue is under consideration with Ministry of Steel(as per Indian express date 10.09.2014).