INDIA'S Jindal Steel and Power, part of the Jindal Group, has bought the Kiepersol thermal coal mine in South Africa, industry sources have said.

INDIA'S Jindal Steel and Power, part of the Jindal Group, has bought the Kiepersol thermal coal mine in South Africa, industry sources have said.

The deal marked the first completed purchase of a coal mine in SA by an Indian entity, they said on Friday.

State and privately owned Indian companies have been seeking South African coal assets for the past several years because local supplies can't meet booming demand. These include Indian trading companies, steel makers and even state coal producer Coal of India.

Kiepersol, situated in Piet Retief, Mpumalanga, is a mothballed, underground mine which produces mid-low volatile content thermal coal used mostly for power generation, the sources said.

The mine was sold by a group of private shareholders to Jindal for an undisclosed price. The mine was originally developed by Duiker, which sold its mines to Xstrata. - Reuters