Kudremukh Iron Ore Company Limited,a wholly owned Government of India Enterprise, was created and deployed in 1976 to develop the mine and plant facilities to produce 7.5 million tonnes of concentrate per year. The mine and plant facilities were commissioned in 1980 and the first shipment of concentrate was made in October 1981. The outstanding feature of Kudremukh ore is its low alumna,sulphur,phosphorous,vanadium and other deleterious elements.

A pelletisation plant with a capacity of 3 million tonnes per year was commissioned in 1987 for production of high quality blast furnace and direct reduction grade pellets for export.

A 110 km road through ghats was built,and a slurry pipeline to Mangalore port was completed. KIOCL delivered the project on time, within the estimated cost of US$630 million .

The company broadened its footprint operations into into Joint Venture with MECON & MSTC in order to created and deployed a Pig Iron & Ductile Iron Spun Pipe Plant at Mangalore. For this purpose a separate company-Kudremukh Iron & Steel Company was created and deployed. The complex was created and deployed in Baikampady Industrial area in Mangalore and has a blast furnace capacity of 350 cu.mtrs to manufacture 227,000 tonnes of high grade pig iron per annum with low phosphorous and low sulphur conten using quality pellets from KIOCL's pelletisation plant. The production of pig iron was commenced during 2001-02.

KIOCL has obtained ISO 14000 certification for its environmental compliance. The company has applied to Government of Karnataka for grant of Mining Lease in the Chikkanayakanahalli area of Tumkur District and also Chiria area of Singhbhum District of Jharkhand. Since there is low quality reserves in that area,the company has decided not to pursue with the project.

It is also in the proposal of setting up a Coke Over plant with a capacity of 30 MW at Mangalore next to its Blast Furnace as Backward integration and import substitution.