YAOUNDE (Reuters) – Jindal Steel and Power (JNSP.NS) will invest around $500 million in Cameroon to build a power plant, a railway line and an iron ore processing plant, Cameroon’s state radio reported, citing the country’s mines ministry.
The 500 MW thermal power station will be built in the southwestern town of Limbe, while the rail line will run between the coastal city of Kribi and Perth-based Sundance Resources Ltd.’s (SDL.AX) iron ore project in Mbalam in the east.
The processing plant will be located in Kribi, home to a deep-water port.
“Jindal Steel and Power will invest nearly $500 million… in the beginning. Afterward, other investment projects… could also follow,” state broadcaster CRTV reported late on Wednesday, quoting a mines ministry statement.
Jindal is also in talks with Caminex SARL, a unit of Toronto and AIM-listed Afferro Mining (AFF.V), to process ore from its Nkout iron ore project at the Kribi plant, the radio reported.
Jindal’s chairman Naveen Jindal met with Cameroon’s President Paul Biya on Tuesday.
“We feel that Cameroon offers lots of investment opportunities especially in the areas of mineral development, infrastructure development and power generation,” he told journalists following the meeting.
“We feel very encouraged, we feel very confident of investing in Cameroon,” he said.
New Delhi-based Jindal Steel and Power is part of the $18 billion diversified O.P. Jindal Group.
In India, it currently operates power plants with a total capacity of 2,298 MW as well as a steel plant with annual production capacity of 3 million tonnes.
In Africa, it holds coal mining licences in South Africa and Mozambique.
(Reporting by Tansa Musa; writing by Joe Bavier; editing by David Lewis and James Jukwey)
