Hyderabad, March 25 (IANS): State-owned mineral producer, the National Mineral Development Corporation (NMDC) on Wednesday said it has received the Most Efficient Navratna of the Year award in the non-manufacturing category in the national PSU awards.

"NMDC received this award in recognition of its mines which stand testimony to the scientific mining wherein the output per man-shift is maximized through efficient utilization of manpower and machinery," the company said in a statement.

It said that apart from being the largest producer of iron ore in India, the company is also one of the low cost iron ore producers across the globe.

The iron miner is producing more than 30 million tonne of iron ore every year from its mechanized mines at Bacheli Complex and Kirandul Complex in Chhattisgarh and Kumaraswamy and Donimalai in Karnataka. It also has an operational diamond mine at Panna, Madhya Pradesh.

Recently, it also won the National Safety Award (Mines) for the year 2011 for the longest accident-free duration of operations in the Bacheli Complex.