Vedanta seeks Indian government's help to tide over raw material crisis

Faced with acute raw material shortage for its refinery at Lanjigarh in Kalahandi district, the Vedanta Group on Tuesday requested the Odisha Government to honour the MoU which assures supply of 150 million tonnes of bauxite for its processing facility in the State.

Chief Operating Officer (COO) of the company Abhijit Pati, who discussed the raw material shortage with Chief Secretary GC Pati here, told reporters that the plant was running at 50 per cent capacity and incurring a loss of `3 crore per day in the absence of assured raw material linkage to the plant.

Sources said Abhijit Pati requested the Chief Secretary to revive the South West Bauxite Mining Company (Pvt) Ltd, a joint venture (JV) between OMC and Sterlite Industries, India for supply of bauxite from deposits in Kalahandi and Rayagada districts to feed the alumina refinery.

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

He said the company will not shut down the plant as it was hopeful that the State Government will meet the requirement of raw materials to run the plant.

Vedanta Group had announced in August to shut down its alumina refinery plant due to non-availability of bauxite ore and falling global metal prices.

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