With the Rs52,000-crore plants of Vedanta Aluminium ltd (VAl) plant at lanjigarh and Jharsuguda starving for raw material and other big ticket aluminium investment proposals in the State, notable ones being RSB Metaltech and IMFA, hanging fire, the State Government is contemplating to start prospecting operations through the Directorate of Geology in vast areas having bauxite reserves in Koraput, Rayagada and Kalahandi districts.
Accordingly, an operation plan has been formulated for the next five years at a cost of Rs 28 crore while Rs 8.36 crore has been earmarked in the Budget for 2013-14, revealed sources in the Department of Steel and Mines.
Principal Secretary of the Steel and Mines Department Rajesh Verma discussed the issue at length with senior officials of the Directorate of Geology here on Sunday even as the officials are busy fine-tuning their plans in this regard.
The Directorate of Geology has identified about 100 small plateaus spread across Koraput, Kalahandi and Raygada districts which are believed to be bearing bauxite. The areas of these small plateaus spread over more than 0.5 sqkm while the total plateau area is around 135 sqkm. For these operations, around 2,073 sqkm of areas in the three districts bearing bauxite are plateaus in places like Sijimali, Kuturumali, Karlapat, lakharisi, Sasubohumali and Kodingamali, sources added.
Bauxite deposits lying in different parts of the State have been explored by the State and Union Government agencies. The bauxite deposits explored by the Directorate of Geology, Geological Survey of India (GSI) and Mineral Exploration Corporation limited (MECl) together add up substantially to the total resources of the State which amounts to 1,846 million tonnes of all categories.
According to the status of exploration, detailed, semi-detailed or preliminary, the resources have been categorised as Proved, Probable or Possible, respectively.
With the prospecting operations, transformation of possible and probable categories of reserves into proved category can also augment the bauxite resources in the State.
From 2003-04 up to 2008-09, bauxite amounting to 28.8 million tonnes has been produced from different mines in the State, mostly from the Panchpatmali mines of Nalco. So, the present available resource of bauxite stands at 1,817.2 million tonnes, said official sources.