Vedanta, the London listed mining conglomerate says it is contemplating revival of the Madras Aluminium Company (Malco) which closed shutters in December, 2008. Vedanta however ruled out the possibility of primary aluminium production in the plant. The firm says they are internally discussing the possibility of reopening the plant and utilizing the facility for making recycled aluminium.
Malco used to be a major aluminium producer and its operations included mining, refining and smelting. Presently, all other operations are closed down and it is only used for power generation. During this crucial time of growth for the Indian aluminium industry where demand scenario is encouraging but production cost for primary aluminium is skyrocketing, it would be a concrete possibility to reopen the plant for remelting operations.
Commenting on the revival plan, Tom Albanese, CEO, Vedanta Resources, said: “The cost of aluminium smelting would make that non-viable, given its scale and the difficult stage of the sector, globally. I would be interested if Malco can be turned into a casting or recycling (of scrap) plant.”
Vedanta plans to lift its aluminium production capacity from the current 900,000 tonnes annually to 3.3 million tonnes. The firm has already invested around $8 billion (Rs 53,000 crore) in the past 10 years to expand its aluminium business.
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"We would like to explore more. The focus would be bauxite auctions, as we are short of bauxite. Any metal or energy resources would interest us.” Albanese said pointing to the expansion plans of the company.
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