The State Government has decided to provide raw material linkage to the Vedanta alumina refinery at lanjigarh in Kalahandi district from the Kodingamali bauxite mines in Koraput district.

The State-owned Odisha Mining Corporation (OMC), which owns the mining lease of the Kodingamali bauxite mines, from which production is expected to start soon.

“We will make arrangements for bauxite supplies to the Vedanta plant from the OMC’s Kodingamali mines. Bauxite supplies can take off once production starts from the mines,” Steel and Mines Minister Prafulla Kumar Mallick told the media here on Wednesday.

Mallick said the OMC’s bauxite mines are spread over an area of 428.31 hectares in Koraput and Rayagada districts.

Notably, Vedanta has been running its lanjigarh refinery by importing bauxite from States like Chhattisgarh, Andhra Pradesh, Gujarat and Maharashtra since its inception. The Odisha Government has not been able to meet the refinery’s raw material requirement, due to which it is not operating at its full capacity.

Besides, the company has occasionally imported bauxite from countries like New Guinea.

Ironically this is the position even though the lanjigarh refinery is surrounded by bauxite deposits. Vedanta has been pleading for alternative bauxite mines after the Union Environment Ministry rejected bauxite mining activities at the Niyamgiri hills.

last year, Vedanta had idled one stream of the lanjigarh refinery to cut down on its mounting losses.

But Vedanta Aluminum has revived the second stream operations at the refinery and is looking at an alumina production of 1.4 million tonnes during 2016-17.

Minister Mallick also said that the State Government has been preparing for auction of five new mines, which include four limestone mines and a manganese mine, located in Malkangiri, Nuapada and Bargarh districts.

“We will be able to go for public auction by the first week of September,” he said.