Vedanta embarking on doubling alumina refining capacity in Odisha

Azad of the Niyamgiri Suraksha Samiti said the authorities at the public hearing didn't record the tribals' objections and neither did it meet other norms for such hearings. What Azad and other critics of the project, such as Amnesty International, ask is where will Sesa Sterlite get the bauxite needed to feed the plant's expanded 6 mt capacity?

Dave pledged that the company wouldn't move to mine the Niyamgiri bauxite deposit unless there was local support. But activists aren't convinced that the two processes still aren't linked. Documents on the Orissa State Pollution Control Board (OSPCB) site still refer to the deposit that's 3.7 km from the plant site.

Sesa Sterlite says it's counting on its 2004 agreement with Odisha Mining Corp. for the supply of 150 mt of bauxite committed under the memorandum of understanding (MoU), meaning that finding the ore is the state-owned company's responsibility. In 2012, VAL acquired a 24.5% stake in Larsen and Toubro's near-dormant aluminium projects in the state. Least week, Agarwal told reporters, "We are talking to L&T, which has been allocated three bauxite mines, to tide over our raw material problem." The state has also agreed to let it mine two deposits of laterite, a mineral with lower alumina content.

According to the company, it has submitted more than 42 mining and prospecting applications for captive bauxite. In the interim period, it will source bauxite from domestic suppliers or import it if the need arises.

Uncertainty over raw material forced Sesa Sterlite to shut the refinery temporarily in December 2012. It is still running below capacity with repercussions on its smelter at Jharsugda, where it converts alumina from Lanjigarh into aluminium. A surge in aluminium prices has made this end of the value chain viable again, provided it can negotiate cheaper power supplies.

There are other potential challenges. In its EIA submission, Sesa Sterlite said, "Expansion will be limited within the existing plant boundary." But the company will need an additional 500 or 888 hectares (depending on the EIA version), apart from the 2,000 hectares it already owns, to expand the red pond (to store the caustic soda rich waste), fly ash pond (waste from the power plant) and other ancillary requirements. To do this it will have to relocate three villages --Rengopalli, Bandagurha and Kothdwar. Gram sabhas have already been conducted and have approved the plan, according to a company spokesperson.

Kishore Chandra Deo, minister of tribal affairs in the previous UPA government, says this may not be enough. "Unless land losers have been given pattas recognizing their claims, and the amount deposited in their accounts, the new Land Acquistion Act that came into effect on January 1 would apply," he said.

Deo, who had opposed bauxite projects in his constituency of Araku in Andhra Pradesh on the grounds that tribals owned the minerals, believes only a constitutional amendment can allow the acquisition of 6th schedule areas.

Azad has little time for politicians though. A "grassroots movement" cannot be dependent on the politics of the day, he said.

"Rahul Gandhi declared himself the soldier of the Kondhs--where is Rahul Gandhi today?" Azad said. "Bhaktacharan Das (former Congress MP from Kalahandi), who was so strongly opposed to Niyamgiri, changed his line to let them mine Sijimalli, Kottrumalli and other nearby bauxite deposits. We won't allow that. It will only lead to the silting of the Indaravati river."