Nalco aims alumina sale at 12 lakh tonnes in FY22, says CMD Sridhar Patra

The largest integrated Bauxite-Alumina-Aluminium-Power complex in Asia, Nalco has sold 91,000 tonnes of metals in Q1FY22 against 71,000 of the corresponding previous year.

The Indian state-run mining and metal company sold 2.86 lakh tonnes of alumina in Q1FY22. Sridhar Patra, the CMD of Nalco said: “For the year, around 12 lakh tonne of alumina will be sold and the company is confident of achieving that.”

He further explained: “There was a gradual decline in employee cost as people were retiring. Now we have taken a very conservative approach.”

“With the reduction in the interest rate the long-term benefit that we calculate, that liability is likely to be changed. We are quite confident that the employee cost will be within acceptable range with comparison to the previous year.”

However, the CMD expects employee cost to increase 5-6% per annum, while the one million tonne alumina capacity is expected to come on-stream in FY23-FY24.

Nalco’s alumina refinery is located at Damanjodi, Odisha, approximately 14 KM from the bauxite mine at Panchpatmali. The mined-out bauxite is transported from the captive mine to the refinery by a 14.6 KM long single-light multi-curve 1800 tonnes per hour (TPH) capacity cable belt conveyor. The alumina produced is transported to the aluminium smelter at Angul (Odisha) and to Vizag (Andhra Pradesh) port by rail.