Vedanta hopeful of arranging bauxite for its refinery

Vedanta Aluminium today said it is hopeful of getting some quantity of bauxite to run its refinery in Kalahandi district.

"The state government is taking steps to arrange bauxite and we are doing it in our level. We hope to arrange some bauxite for the purpose," Vedanta Chief Operating Officer Mukesh Kumar told reporters.

He said the company was optimistic of getting certain quantity of bauxite from outside the state in next two to three days. Kumar's statement came after Vedanta's top brass including Managing Director S K Rungta and CEO P Suri met Chief Secretary B K Patnaik at the secretariat this evening.

The aluminium major had earlier served a notice to shut down its refinery at Lanjigarh from December 5 due to lack of bauxite. The notice was given to the state government with a request to facilitate bauxite supply to the refinery as per the provision of the MoU.

While the company was yet to decide on whether to go for temporary closure of the refinery from December 5, a senior official said the date could be extended if certain amount of raw material was arranged before the deadline. Meanwhile, sources said that though the state government could not immediately give any bauxite to Vedanta, it is exploring several options to ensure supply of raw materials to the company.

While the Lanjigarh refinery was likely to go for a temporary closure, the company had requested Nalco to supply alumina for operation of the company's smelter at Jharsuguda. Nalco was yet to respond to the Vedanta's request. The senior company officials met the Chief Secretary here barely within a month of Vedanta Group Chief Anil Agarwal meeting the Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik.