Indian Rare Earths

IREL (India) Limited, (Erstwhile Indian Rare Earths Limited),was incorporated on August 18, 1950 with its first unit Rare Earths Division (RED), Aluva in Kerala. It became a full-fledged Government of India Undertaking, under the administrative control of Department of Atomic Energy (DAE) in year 1963 and took over companies engaged in mining and separation of beach sand minerals in southern part of the country, by establishing two more divisions one at Chavara, Kerala and the other at Manavalakurichi (MK),Tamilnadu. IREL commissioned its largest flagship beach sand Mining and Mineral separation unit, Orissa Sands Complex (OSCOM) at Chatrapur, Odisha in 1986. Presently IREL has capacity of about 6 lakhs tons per annum of Ilmenite and other associated beach sand minerals i.e. Rutile, Zircon, Sillimanite and Garnet at its three mineral separation units. IREL has also set up a Rare Earth Extraction Plant at Odisha to produce about 11,000 ton Rare Earth Chloride and associated products and High Pure Rare Earths(HPRE) plant at RED, Aluva to produce separated Rare Earth Oxide/Carbonates. IREL is a profit making CPSE since 1997-98 with its sales turnover reaching a peak exceeding Rs.6200 million in 2011-12, with export component of about Rs.2000 million. IREL is also in the process of facilitation, setting up of industry in value chain of minerals produced other than expanding its existing capacity in near future. IREL has in house R&D division at Kollam, Kerala to support mineral and chemical operation and Corporate Office at Mumbai Maharashtra.