By Bizodisha Bureau, Bhubaneswar, August 17, 2016: A decade after investing Rs 52,000 crore in Odisha – the largest ever by a single corporate house – Anil Agarwal owned Vedanta Limited [VAL] is likely to have access to local bauxite from the state run Odisha Mining Corporation (OMC) with the state government deciding to provide bauxite to Vedanta’s Lanjigarh alumina factory from the Kodingamali mines in Koraput.

Odisha steel and mines minister Prafulla Mallick on Wednesday told media persons, “OMC has got the mining lease of Kodingamali mines located in Koraput. We will provide bauxite to Vedanta from the mines once production starts.”

Regulatory hurdles, lack of access to raw material – bauxite and alumina and land acquisition problems have forced VAL to run its refinery and smelter at one fourth of its capacities.

At 3.3 billion ton, India has the world’s fifth-largest reserve of bauxite, the principle source of aluminium. But tardy government clearances and land acquisition issues mean that most of its alumina refineries including VAL’s one million ton per annum [MTPA] refining capacity at Lanjigarh cannot operate in the absence of captive bauxite mines, leaving capacity idle.

VAL is credited with setting up Asia’s largest single location aluminium complex which has the potential enough to propel Odisha on the global map as a critical and potential aluminium hub. However, the Naveen Patnaik government’s lackadaisical approach in ensuring promised raw-material linkage to run the Lanjigarh refinery and lack of power to begin commercial production in 1.25 MTPA smelter at Jharsuguda has raised alarm bell for VAL.

As per the government’s Aluminium Mission Plan 2010-20, domestic demand for the metal is expected to rise from 1.4 million tonne a year now to 5 million ton by 2015 and 10 million ton by 2020.
Incidentally, more than half of bauxite deposit in the country is in Odisha.” I cannot understand why the state government fails to ensure bauxite linkage to the Companies, which have already invested heavily and come up with the alumna and aluminium complex in the state?” Padmshri P K Jena, former director general of Council of Scientific and Industrial Research [CSIR] quipped.

The state government’s decision to provide bauxite to Vedanta may bring some relief to the metal major which had been groping in darkness for the last couple of years. “We will also expedite the mines auction process in the state. Five mines – four limestone mines and one manganese mines – will be auctioned by the end of August or September first,” Mallick said.

The five mines that would go under the hammer are located at Kotameta and Usakalabhagu in Malkangiri district, one in Garamara in Nuapada district, Jampali in Bargarh district and a manganese mine at Lasarda Pacheri in Keonjhar district.