Vedanta readying bauxite supplies to restart alumina refinery plant in Odisha

The Vedanta Group is hopeful of tying up bauxite supplies to restart its alumina refinery in Lanjigarh, Odisha within the next 1 to 2 months.

Vedanta Aluminium Limited, the group arm which operates the unit is in talks with a clutch of private miners in Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh besides Gujarat to source more than half of its annual requirement of 30 lakh tonnes of bauxite. The arrangement is expected to ensure uninterrupted supplies of bauxite to the refinery, since Vedanta's own sources of bauxite from Niyamgiri hills is unlikely to happen before one year.

Mr Mukesh Kumar president & COO of VAL said that "We want to be doubly sure before we take any step to restart the refinery at Lanjigarh. But there are few other options left in Odisha. We are exploring the option of sourcing bauxite from 4 to 5 states and are in talks with private miners in these states. We are hopeful of getting nearly 1.6 million tonnes from these miners. We will source the remaining 1.4 million tonnes of bauxite from our group company, Balco."