Vedanta to carry on Lanjigarh alumina refinery expansion without bauxite from Niyamgiri

After putting countless efforts on overcoming local political unrest at Niyamgiri mines for securing bauxite from there, mining baron Anil Agarwal’s Vedanta Ltd. finally decides to put a stop at it and use alternate bauxite resources for expanding Lanjigarh alumina refinery, a top company official reveals. The Lanjigarh alumina refinery is expected to complete its expansion project to 6 million tonnes per annum by 2021.

CEO for Alumina and Power Business Ajay Kumar Dixit says there are enough alternate bauxite resources available to feed the expansion while adding that with the completion of the expansion project, the plant may require about 18 million tonnes of bauxite in a year.

Currently, Lanjigarh imports 2.5 to 3 million tonnes of bauxite and sources almost an equal volume from domestic mines. This is likely to continue for now until converting to a plant that used only the domestically sourced resource, Dixit continues.

"A lot of stigma was attached whether Vedanta could run without Niyamgiri. The fact is Niyamgiri would have given us 2.5-3 million tonnes, whose absence hardly makes any difference (to the expansion)," he said. "The ghost of Niyamgiri is done and dusted. We are well past it."

According to Dixit, Odisha is a house to 700 million tonnes of known bauxite reserves, out of which Niyamgiri holds an estimated 88 million tonnes, hence, an equal number of reserves is still unexplored.