Post News Network
Bhubaneswar, August 29: The state government said it would rope in Nalco and Hindalco to provide bauxite to Vedanta’s one million tonne refinery at Lanjigarh as an immediate relief to the mega project.
The refinery was on the verge of closure after it was unable to get bauxite linkage from the Orissa Mining Corporation, which itself has no bauxite lease available with it.
“The state government had an arrangement with Vedanta to ensure bauxite supplies to the Lanjigarh plant through OMC. But unfortunately, OMC has no running bauxite mine to provide the raw material. It will take about two years to make the available mines operational,” steel and mines minister Prafulla Mallik told mediapersons after having a meeting with departmental and Vedanta officials here Saturday.
Once the mines became operational, the state government would provide long-term linkage to the refinery plant, Mallik said.
“Company officials are saying it is not possible for them to wait for another two years for raw material. Therefore, it has been decided to approach the other aluminium plants in state like Nalco and Hindalco to provide bauxite ore to the unit,” Mallik said.
“Though there is no legal provision to provide raw material from captive mines, we will urge the aluminium plants to feed the plant through mutual understanding,” the minister added.
Mines director Deepak Mohanty said three laterite deposits have been given to the plant and the state government is planning to provide long-term linkage from Karlapat bauxite mine and Sasubohumali bauxite mines through OMC.
“We have opened our plant here to get bauxite from the state. However, we did not get even one tonne of bouxite in the last 10 years and now the situation is so worse that we are not in a position to run the plan for a single day. Talks are going on. If any solution emerges after the Friday meeting, we will continue with our plant,” Vedanta’s chief operating officer KK Dave said. The firm is operating the plant by importing bauxite and laterate mines from other states and countries.
In the memorandum of understanding (MoU) signed with Vedanta (then Sesa Sterlite), the state government had assured supply of 150 million tonne of bauxite per annum.
