Another bauxite mine allocated to Nalco post Panchpatmali

Four days after recommending first renewal of Panchpatmali bauxite reserve in favour of Nalco, Odisha chief minister Naveen Patnaik has approved a proposal to allocate another bauxite mines in favour of the aluminium major, official sources said.

With the state government recommending Nalco's name for Potangi bauxite reserve, the company's raw material problem is considered to be over for a long time.

Nalco was seeking the state government's permission for allocation of Potangi mines having bauxite deposit of about 75.22 million tonnes since 1992, the sources added. State PSU Odisha Mining Corporation and two other parties were interested to get prospecting licence over this particular mine in Koraput district, they said.

However, keeping in view the requirement of Nalco, Ministry of Mines had reserved Potangi for Nalco since 2007 for undertaking prospecting or mining lease.

"We will set up a one million tonne capacity refinery at an investment of Rs 6,000 crore at Damanjodi in Koraput district after getting PL over the Potangi mines," Nalco CMD NK Chand had recently said.

Meanwhile, Nalco has committed to taking up CSR by spending as many as Rs 300 crore at Damanjodi, Angul and other places of the state.

Earlier, the state government had renewed the mining lease of Panchpatmali Bauxite Mines till March 31, 2020. Recently, the Centre had allocated Utkal-D and Utkal-E coal blocks in favour of Nalco.