Vedanta exploring other bauxite sources

Lanjigarh (Orissa), Jan 31 (PTI) Hopeful of Centralnod for six-fold expansion for its alumina refinery here soon,Vedanta today said it was also exploring various bauxitesources to feed its unit, hit by denial of mining operationsin Niyamgiri hills.

"We are hopeful that clearance will be given forexpanding the capacity of our alumina refinery from presentone mtpa to six mtpa," Mukesh Kumar, President and COO ofVedanta''s alumina refinery here told PTI here.

Stating that Vedanta group chairman Anil Agarwaldiscussed the matter with Union Environment minister JairamRamesh recently, he said the company hopes for early clearanceas it was fulfilling all laid down conditions and complyingwith green laws without causing slightest damage toenvironment.

"Moreover, we are not interested in litigation as wewant to concentrate on accelerating our work," he said

Describing raw material crunch as a major constraint,Kumar said the company has applied for around eleven bauxitesites in Orissa and expects the state government as well asCentre to expedite applications for at least two reserves.

Vedanta was seriously pursuing nearby Sasubohumalisite, which is estimated to have around 82 million tonnes ofbauxite, besides Kutramali and Karlapet reserves, he saidadding the company was now getting around 60 per cent of rawmaterial for Lanjigarh refinery from Balco in Chhattisgarh.

The rest was being arranged from states like Gujarat,Maharashtra, Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh, Bihar and AndhraPradesh, while the company was still unable to get any bauxiteinside Orissa, he said. .