After starving for raw materials for long, the Vedanta Aluminium limited’s (VAl) refinery at lanjigarh in Kalahandi district can now hope for enough bauxite.
This was the outcome from a meeting among Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik, Vedanta Chairman Anil Agarwal and l&T chief AM Naik held here on Tuesday.
The trio decided that the l&T’s two bauxite reserves at Sijimali and Kuturmali in Rayagada and Kalahandi district, respectively, would feed the VAl refinery.
“The Chief Minister has assured bauxite for our refinery project. He said we can source bauxite from l&T’s reserves,” Agarwal told mediapersons. Both the mines have an estimated bauxite deposit of about 300 million tonnes.
Stating that the Vedanta refinery is utilising only 50 per cent of its one million-tonnes-per-annum capacity, Agarwal said the VAl would work jointly with the l&T to explore bauxite.
The lanjigarh alumina refinery and its proposed long-term bauxite source in the Niyamgiri hills have been in the midst of controversies even since the beginning as the local tribals oppose the projects.
An uncertain future was staring at the refinery as it was not having any permanent source of bauxite. It is estimated that the refinery needs 3 MT of bauxite to run the refinery.
Earlier, the Vedanta had entered into a joint venture with the l&T, which holds prospecting licences for the Sijimali and Kutrumali mines. “We have not only signed an MoU with Anil Agarwal’s company but have a deeper relationship with it,” l&T chief Naik said. He said of the Rs 12,000-crore JV project, the l&T would invest about Rs 4,000 crore.
The State Government on its part has to recommend mining licence (Ml) for the l&T to the Centre. The l&T had won prospecting licence (Pl) for the Sijimali and Kutrumali bauxite mines in 1992. But two years later, after the expiry of the Pl, the State Government denied Ml to the l&T since it had no end-use plant.
In 2005, the l&T through a joint venture (JV) with the Dubai Aluminium limited (Dubal) had proposed a Rs 30,000-crore alumina refinery of three-million-tonnes-per-annum capacity at Rayagada, a 1.5-mtpa smelter project and a captive power plant (CPP).