Left-wing extremism halts India's hopes for bauxite project

India’s plans to develop the first bauxite reserves since the early 1980s has been threatened by a sudden rise in ultraleft-wing extremism opposing the project in the southern Indian province of Andhra Pradesh.

Local government officials said armed ultraleft-wing extremists active across forested regions of Andhra Pradesh had been brought under control through active policing by special forces over the past decade.

But the extremists were, once again, seen to be gaining control over territories, largely drawing support from the local population, which was opposing all large-scale bauxite mining projects in the province, the officials said.

The return of extremism was marked by the abduction of three leaders of the ruling political party of the province earlier this month. Although the extremists released the three after ten days, the message sent through the captured leaders was that the provincial government should scrap all bauxite mining projects and that leaders of the ruling party should actively participate in an antimining campaign, the officials added.

It was pointed out that earlier successes in countering the extremists were pinned on intelligence provided by the local population but this had dried up with the latter supporting the extremists, and were now seen to be either actively collaborating with them or providing tacit support by not providing information to the authorities.

The projects that have triggered extremist activities include the joint venture (JV) between National Aluminium Company Limited (Nalco) and Andhra Pradesh Mineral Development Corporation. The JV has been granted access to 250-million tonnes of bauxite reserves in the province and Nalco proposed to invest $1-billion in setting up a mining and refinery project and another $1.5-billion on a smelter in the second phase.

Anrak Aluminium, a JV between Penna Industries and Ras Al Khaimah Investments UAE also proposed to develop a 1.5-million-tonne-a-year bauxite mine.

Government officials concede that the extremists could halt plans to develop bauxite resources in Andhra Pradesh, which accounted for almost 18% of the country’s total bauxite reserves, next only to neighbouring province of Odisha. Incidentally, India has not been able to develop a single bauxite mine in the country since Nalco commenced operations of its mines in Odisha, in the early 1980s.

Officials said Vedanta, which had built an alumina refinery at Lanjigarh, in Odisha, had all but stopped production as it failed to access bauxite and had been pinning hopes of securing the raw materials from neighbouring Andhra Pradesh. According to industry analysts, India's aluminium production was expected to touch 4.36-million tonnes a year but the smelting capacity would not have any raw material security since no bauxite mining project could be operationalised.