Orissa govt asks BHP to submit revised plan

After L&T-Dubal, it is now the turn of global mining major BHP Billiton to be told by the Orissa government that the state is not interested in any proposal for stand-alone alumina refineries and will only consider projects that includes at least making aluminium ingots. BHP had proposed to set up a $3 billion dollar alumina refinery at Gopalpur in Ganjam district, Orissa. It, however, did not intend to set up an aluminium smelter to convert alumina into metal ingots on the ground that the process will be very costly in the country as the cost of power, the major input in smelting, is very high. M S Ramachandran, head (India operations), BHP had given a presentation to the chief secretary and other senior officials in the state secretariat on the project on Thursaday. Informed sources said the state government rejected BHP's proposal in its present form and asked the company to come up with a fresh proposal containing more details on the project and also scope for further value addition to alumina within the state. Then we are insisting that Aditya Aluminium, Vedanta and L & T-Dubal set up aluminium smelters within the state before signing of MoU with them assuring raw material (bauxite) linkages, how can we agree to BHP's proposal to only set up a alumina refinery without any scope for further value addition an official pointed out.