Vedanta Aluminum plans Orissa refinery expansion

BS reported that Vedanta Aluminum Limited is planning to expand capacity of its existing alumina refinery in Lanjigarh in Orissa to 6 million tonnes from the current 1 million tonnes at an investment of around INR 7,000 crore. The total investment at the Lanjigarh refinery will be around INR 11,000 crore after the expansion. Dr Mukesh Kumar COO of Vedanta Aluminum Limited said that "We plan to increase the capacity of the Lanjigarh refinery to 6 million tonnes per annum in phases. But the expansion will be possible only if the company gets the bauxite mine lease in Orissa." The expansion plan comes in the wake of problems the company is facing with regard to securing bauxite linkage for the refinery. It has plans to mine bauxite through a JV with Orissa Mining Corporation from the nearby Niyamgiri hills. However, the mining project has run into rough weather with green activists moving the Supreme Court against the adverse impact it would have on the environment around Niyamgiri. Vedanta has complied with certain conditions laid down in an interim order of the Supreme Court and is awaiting the final verdict of the court over grant of permission to mine bauxite in Niyamgiri. The Lanjigarh refinery, which started its test run in August 2007, is now operating at half of its installed capacity, incurring a loss of about INR 1 crore a day since October 2007, with an annual loss estimated at about INR 400 crore. Source: steelguru