Vedanta hopes to get bauxite for Orissa plant soon

BHUBANESWAR - British mining company Vedanta Resources is hopeful of getting bauxite for its alumina refinery in Orissa soon, the company’s chairman Anil Agarwal said Thursday.

The London-headquartered metals and mining company has built a one million tonne per annum capacity alumina refinery at Lanjigarh in the state’s Kalahandi district, some 600 km from here.

The company is waiting to mine bauxite from the nearby Niyamgiri hills but is yet to get the final nod from the central government.

“We are getting bauxite from other states,” Agarwal said after talks with Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik and senior government officials.

“He (Patnaik) has promised us and said that they were sitting on the fourth largest reserve of bauxite. Bauxite should not be a problem. All the bauxite required for the refinery will be provided and the process is on,” he told reporters, citing the chief minister.

Vedanta is also setting up a 0.5 million tonne per annum aluminium smelter and 1,215 MW captive power plant in the state. Group company, Sterlite Energy Limited, is also setting up a 2,400 MW independent power plant at Jharsuguda.

Agarwal said the first unit of the power plant will be commissioned by summer this year.

Asked about the status of the steel plant Vedanta has planned in the state, Agarwal said the plant will be built in joint venture and negotiations are in an advanced stage.