Vedanta proposes alternative sources of bauxite for restarting alumina refinery in Odisha
15 Feb 2013
Vedanta Aluminium, which was forced to suspend operations at its million-tonne alumina refinery in Odisha's Kalahandi district in December 2012, has suggested alternative sources of bauxite supplies among other options to restart the unit.
Vedanta Aluminium, a unit of London-listed Vedanta Resources, was forced to close down its one million tonne refinery at Lanjigarh, on 5 December, due to non-availability of bauxite and is now struggling for bauxite linkage.
The Anil Agarwal-controlled Vedanta Aluminium has now pointed out a number of small deposits of bauxite in different places in the state that has been unutilised for a long time.
''These small bauxite reserves are not given to any company. They lie with the state government. Many of them are located in non-forest areas also,'' Mukesh Kumar, the company's chief operating officer (COO), said.
He said apart from these, there are several closed mines in the state that can be revived to meet the raw material needs of aluminium producers.
The state government, which has assured bauxite supplies to Vedanta Aluminium, so as to enable it resume alumina production, is yet to identify a mine to rerun the refinery.