Vedanta Aluminium resumes refinery operations after 10 days production halt

Vedanta Aluminium Limited (VAL) resumed operations today at its alumina refinery in Odisha's Kalahandi district  after operations had been shut for 10 days due to shortage of raw materials.

The company had last month informed the state government that the operations at the alumina refinery would be halted by 5 December, but due to non-availability of bauxite, it had closed down the plant ahead of schedule on 12 October.

According to VAL president Mukesh Kumar who spoke to IANS, the refinery had been re-started at a reduced capacity of 60 per cent after the company managed to arrange around 3,500 tonnes of bauxite from  Chhattisgarh and about 90,000 tonne from Gujarat.

The 1 MTPA alumina capacity refinery at Lanjigarh in Kalahandi district had been in operation at reduced capacity since commissioning in August 2007.

Set up at a capital outlay of $800 million, VAL requires 300,000 tonne of bauxite per month to run the refinery at full capacity.

The company wanted to mine bauxite from Niyamgiri Hills near the refinery, however the litigation and protests has held up mining operations.

According to Kumar the refinery might have to be shut down if the company did not manage to get more raw material for the plant.