NALCO granted mining lease of Pottangi Bauxite Mines in Odisha

Odisha’s Department of Steel & Mines has granted the lease of Pottangi Bauxite Mines, in Koraput district of Odisha to Navaratna PSU National Aluminium Company Limited (NALCO), a company press release reported yesterday. The lease, which covers an area of about 4,295 acres has been granted for a period of 50 years. Nalco’s 22,75,000-tonne alumina refinery is located at a very close proximity to the mine and it is s expected to make operations much easier for the profit making PSU.

Commenting on the mining lease, NALCO's CMD Tapan Kumar Chand said that now it is the company's turn to live up to the expectations of both Centre and State, as also the people of Odisha, through expansion, investment and CSR initiatives.

The Pottangi reserves join the Panchpatmalli Hills reserves as Nalco’s only bauxite deposits under leasehold. NALCO's forthcoming expansion plans which includes an addition of 5th stream in its existing alumina refinery at an investment of INR 5,600 crore, depends on this additional source of Bauxite.

It may be noted that, at a time when the global aluminium industry is struggling to cope up with the sluggish aluminium as well as the commodity market and major aluminium producers are reporting losses and cutting capacities, NALCO), a PSU under Government of India, has remained profitable year over year. The company is successfully handling the market slowdown by becoming the lowest cost alumina producer in the world and focusing on its bauxite mining and alumina refining capacity. The company has undertaken a number of cost cutting measures in their aluminium production process.

The Indian aluminium major reported an all-time high bauxite production of 63, 40,142 tonnes and 19,53,000 tonnes of alumina in 2015-16 which are about 10% and 6% higher respectively than the previous fiscal production. The company also produced 3, 72,183 tonnes of metal, which is an increase of 14% as compared to the previous year.