Bauxite mining supporters come together to push their case

Breaking their silence over stiff opposition to bauxite mining, several technical and mining experts and investors for the first time met in the city recently to justify exploration of bauxite ore in parts of Eastern Ghats with eco-friendly technologies.

Their presence in large number, including the flying visit of Vedanta Resources Plc CEO Tom Albanese, one of the highest paid corporate honchos, showed their seriousness to ensure raw material security for Anrak Aluminium Ltd’s refinery at Makavarapalem in Visakhapatnam and Vedanta’s alumina refinery at Lanjigarh in Odisha.

In no uncertain terms, they say there is potential for investment up to Rs.1 lakh crore with employment to 30,000 directly and three lakh indirectly and contribution to the exchequer and foreign exchange earnings to the tune of $20 billion to $25 billion if an aluminium hub is developed in AP and Odisha.

The third annual conference hosted here by International Bauxite, Alumina and Aluminium Society (IBASS) assumed importance in the light of indications made by Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu to have a re-look at allowing bauxite mining the Agency areas of Visakhapatnam by involving stakeholders.

Incidentally, investments worth Rs.20,000 crore by Anrak and Jindal, with whom MoU were signed by the Andhra Pradesh Government before bifurcation hang in balance after the Centre put on hold all the clearances given to dig bauxite ore in August 2010.

The suspension order was issued following a representation issued by then Araku MP V. Kishore Chandra Deo that mining if allowed would trigger an ecological disaster by drying up the hill streams, spoiling the fragile ecosystem of scheduled areas of Eastern Ghats and hitting hard the livelihood of Girijans.

While pinning high hopes on Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the firmness to promote investment opportunities in AP by Mr. Naidu, the representatives from the city industry expressed optimism over the future.

Anrak President (Projects) Hariharan Mahadevan, IBASS president Vinod Sood, secretary Dr. Ashok Nandi and others wanted a campaign to allay fears over mining.

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