By Bizodisha Bureau, Bhubaneswar, October 12, 2015 : The Indian government owned blue-chip company, National Aluminium Company Ltd [Nalco] on Monday got the final nod of Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik long awaited Potangi bauxite reserve mines in its favour ending two-decade long uncertainty.

Nalco has announced to set up a one million ton capacity refinery at an investment of Rs 6,000 crore at Damanjodi in Koraput district for which it had sought lease over the Potangi mines.

As the state government sat over the proposal over more than two decades, Nalco had sounded the top bureaucrats that it would opt for a green field refinery elsewhere in the country or abroad to other state if the state is not interested to lease out Pottangi mine to it.

At the same time, the top management of Nalco had made it clear that the Company is committed to taking up Corporate Social Responsibility [CSR] by spending as many as Rs 300 crore at Damanjodi, Angul and other places of the state.

However, one of the top bureaucrats close to chief minister Naveen Patnaik appears to have prevailed upon the latter facilitating the recommendation of Nalco’s name for Potangi bauxite reserve.

“The Nalco Board has approved setting up of 5th line of alumina refinery of 1 MTPA capacity based on Pottangi Bauxite deposit. Final allotment of Pottangi mines is pending with the State Government. Once the mine is allotted, the same will attract a capital outlay of Rs. 1437 crores over next 3-4 years for developing the mine and for setting up necessary bauxite transportation facilities. However, the total outlay for the Refinery project is Rs.5540 crore”, Nalco chairman cum managing director Tapan Kumar Chand recently had told “Bizodisha.com”.

Nalco was seeking the state government’s permission for allocation of Potangi mines having bauxite deposit of about 75.22 million tons since 1992.

The state government owned Odisha Mining Corporation and two other parties were keen to get prospecting license over Pottangi mines in Koraput district.

But the union ministry of mines had reserved Potangi for Nalco since 2007 for undertaking prospecting or mining lease keeping in view Nalco’s future requirement.

After much dilly-dally, the state government has renewed the mining lease of Panchpatmali Bauxite Mines till March 31, 2020.