IREL (India) Limited (Formally Indian Rare
Earths Limited) is a government-owned corporation
Mini-Ratna Category A, Schedule B Company,
in India based in Mumbai.
It was incorporated as a private limited company
and jointly owned by the Government of India.
Government of India took control of IREL in
1963 under the administrative control of Department
of Atomic Energy (DAE).
It was incorporated with the primary intention
of taking up commercial scale processing of
monazite sand at its first unit namely Rare
Earths Division (RED), Aluva, Kochi for the
recovery of thorium.IREL commissioned its
largest division called Orissa Sand Complex
(OSCOM) at Chhatrapur, Orissa.
Today IREL operates these four units along
with a corporate office in Mumbai and a unit
located in Manavalakurichi of Kanyakumari
district.
It produces/sells six heavy minerals namely
ilmenite, rutile, zircon, monazite, sillimanite,
and garnet as well as various value added
products.
From 1 May 2015 it started commercial operation
of Monazite Processing Plant at Orissa to
process 10000tpa monazite to produce 11220tpa
of rare earth chloride, 13500 tri-sodium phosphate,
26tpa NGADU etc.
Similarly High Pure Rare Earth facility also
commenced operation to refine pure rare earth
compounds.
The Corporate Research Centre is located at
Kollam, Kerala and carries out research in
the field of value added products from beach
sand minerals, undertakes consultancy projects
on mineral separation and flow sheet development,
carrying out mineral analysis and caters to
the needs of internal and external customers
