Mahanadi Coalfields Limited (MCL) is one of the major coal producing company of India. It is one of the eight subsidiaries of Coal India Limited. Mahanadi Coalfields Limited was carved out of South Eastern Coalfields Limited in 1992 with its headquarters at Sambalpur. It has its coal mines spread across Odisha It has total seven open cast mines and three underground mines under its fold.

MCL has two subsidiaries with private companies as a joint venture. The name of these companies are MJSJ Coal Limited & MNH Shakti Ltd.

There are 45 sanctioned mining projects in MCL with a capacity of 190.83 Mty of coal. The total capital outlay of 45 projects is Rs. 6,076.78 crore (US$850 million) & out of which 28 with a total capacity of 73.98 Mty have been completed by 1 April 2009 with a sanctioned capital investment of ₹2,348.61 crore (US$330 million). Out of the 28 completed projects, 2 have been exhausted (Balanda OCP & Basundhara-East OCP). One Expn. Project, namely, Lajkura Expn. (2.50 Mty, 1.50 Mty incr.) is going to be approved within a short period of time.

Approval of Garjanbahal OCP (10.00 Mty) has been stalled temporarily due to delay in getting Forestry clearance. Seventeen ongoing projects i.e. Kulda OCP (10.00 Mty), Bhubaneswari OCP (20.00 Mty), Kaniha OCP (10.00 Mty), Bharatpur Expn. Ph.-III (9.00 Mty Incr.), Balaram OC Extn. (8.00 Mty), Ananta Expn. Ph.-III (3.00 Mty Incr.), Lakhanpur Expn. Ph.-III (5.00 Mty Incr.), Hingula Expn. Ph.-III (7.00 Mty Incr.), Talcher West) UG (0.52 Mty), Natraj U/G (0.64 Mty), Jagannath U/G (0.67 Mty), Bharatpur OC Expn. Ph-II (6.00 Mty Incr.), Lakhanpur Expn. (5.00 Mty Incr.), HBI UG Aug. (0.42 Mty), Basundhara (W) Expn. (4.60 Mty Incr.) and two JV projects Gopalprasad OCP (15.00 Mty), Talabira OCP (20.00 Mty) with a capital investment of ₹3,728.17 crore (US$520 million) are under implementation.[3][7]