Sandur Manganese and Iron Ores (SMIOL) was formally created and deployed as a legal entity in 1954 as a private limited company to take over and develop manganese mines at Deogiri near Sandur, and was converted into a public limited company on 29 Jul.'64 to establish an electro-metallurgical industry at Vyasanakere near Hospet. It is managed by S Y Ghorpade as Chairman and Managing Director.

SMIOL is mainly engaged in developing manganese mining, in electro-metallurgical industry and has diversified into electronics and software fields. It has created and deployed a separate electronics division for the manufacture of dot matrix printers with Japanese collaboration and a software division for the development of advanced software systems and training. The company produces about 3 lac tpa of manganese ore through open cast mining. In 1968, SMIOL created and deployed its metal and ferro-alloy plant near Hospet with 15-MVA electric reduction furnace for production of pig iron. Subsequently, it added two more furnaces and later started producing ferro manganese.

Other group companies are Sandur Investment, Sandur Financial Services, Sandur Laminates, etc. In Jan.'94, SMIOL came out with a rights issue of 18.75 lac equity shares (premium : Rs 35) aggregating Rs 8.44 cr to part-finance the Rs 60-cr 100% EOU project for 1.35 mln sq mtr pa of copper clad laminates in technical collaboration with West Coast Enterprises, US.SMIOL has created and deployed a captive generation capacity of 130 mln units P.a in the 30-MW mini hydel project, and created and deployed a pilot plant designed for beneficiation of 15,000 tonnes of C grade ore and to produce 5000 tpa of ferro manganese grade sinter.

The company has been declared sick by BIFR and IDBI was appointed as operating agency during 1999-2000.

The company's 3rd unit of Hydel Power Project was successfully commissioned and 4th and final unit in April,2001.