Bolivia has awarded Jindal Steel and Power the development rights to a massive iron mine in the eastern town of Puerto Suarez next to the Brazilian border. The company will invest $2.3 billion in the production of iron and steel plates at the Mutun mine.

According to ministry of external affairs (MEA) officials, this is the biggest project ever awarded to an Indian company in South America.

The announcement has come a month after President Evo Morales nationalised Bolivia’s natural gas industry, and the Mutun bid was seen as a test of how the government would handle mining investments.

The mine is estimated to hold 40 billion metric tons (44 billion tons) of iron ore. Government officials say the deal could earn the poor Andean nation more than $250 million a year in exports and employ over 1,800 people.

Bidding on the contract has dragged out through decades of delays, the most recent of which came last December when Bolivia’s outgoing government left the final decision to Morales’ new leftist government. The Morales administration required bidders to not only extract the iron but also industrialise its production into steel using Bolivia’s natural gas.

Jindal became the lone bidder after the government disqualified an offer by Netherlands-based Mittal Steel Co. Details of the contract will be finalised in the next 60 days.