Mumbai: ArcelorMittal chief Lakshmi Mittal is keen on entering the coal mining sector in India which is now gradually opening up.

ArcelorMittal, the world's largest steelmaker, is seeking a joint venture with Coal India Ltd. for reviving some of the old and abandoned mines of the state-owned company as also tap new ones. CIL produces over 84 per cent of the country's coal.

The group is believed to have sent a letter to the union coal minister stating its intent on tying up with CIL. Mittal had also recently visited West Bengal chief minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee and expressed his desire to invest in the state.

The steel giant said it would bring in new technology that can help resume production safely so that substantial leftovers from mines can be extracted from mines abandoned by Coal India.

At the same time, the company also wants to invest in new mines in a joint venture with Coal India, reports said.

The research and development apex committee of CIL is learnt to have discussed the issue of abandoned mines at a meeting held at the corporate headquarters earlier this week. CIL has also launched a fact-finding mission to assess the number of such mines under CIL, sources said.

Several coalmines in the country were closed down after slaughter mining in the pre-nationalisation days without taking proper measures on decommissioning. This had also resulted in unauthorised or clandestine mining, leading to subsidence.

CIL is also undertaking a study to find out the reserves of thermal coal or coking coal available with the mines.

While CIL is still the largest coal mining entity in India and the world, its share is expected to fall under the new mining policy.

Of late several big corporates have shown interest in coal mining projects and have reached out to CIL for joint ventures.

Reliance Industries has shown interest in setting up a coal liquefaction project. But, for the Mittals, a joint venture is more significant as the group has announced plans for setting up steel plants in eastern India where much of the coal deposits lie.

Jharkhand and West Bengal have the biggest concentrations of good quality coal and prime coking coal.

The Jharia coal belt is estimated to hold huge reserves of about five billion tonnes of coking coal.