Vedanta not to close its Odisha refinery

Bhubaneswar, Nov 25:

Vedanta has decided not to shut down its one million tonne per annum refinery at Lanjigarh in Odisha’s Kalahandi district even if it was facing a loss of Rs.3 crore per day due to scarcity of raw material, an official said on Tuesday.

Vedanta RGB

Vedanta’s Chief Operating Officer (COO) Abhijit Pati, who discussed the raw material shortage with state chief secretary G.C. Pati on Tuesday, said the plant was running at 50 percent capacity in the absence of raw material linkage to the plant.

He, however, reposed faith in the state government for facilitating supply of raw materials to run the alumina refinery plant.

“The plant requires at least 3 lakh tonnes of bauxite ore per annum to run its refinery. At present, the production capacity of the refinery has fallen by about 50 percent due to non-availability of adequate raw materials,” Abhijit Pati said.

He said the company would not shut down the plant as it was hopeful that the state government would help in meeting the requirement of raw materials to run the plant.

Anil Agarwal-owned Vedanta in August had decided to close down its alumina refinery due to non-availability of bauxite ore and falling global metal prices.

The Niyamgiri hilltop, which Vedanta wanted to mine, contains an estimated 72 million tonnes of bauxite. However, it could not mine it following opposition from the Dongaria Kondh tribals residing on the hill slopes. (IANS)

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