After 12 gram sabhas completely rejected bauxite mining in the Niyamgiri hills, Vedanta is now looking beyond the area to source raw material for its Rs 5,000 crore Lanjigarh alumina refinery in Odisha and is hopeful of securing an alternate mine soon.
Asking Odisha government and Vedanta Aluminium Limited (VAL) to spare Niyamgiri Hills for bauxite, Union Minister Jairam Ramesh today said the new land acquisition bill has given legal rights to tribals and farmers to reject or accept any project.
The one-million tonne Vedanta's alumina plant at Lanjigarh in the southern part of the mineral rich state, was reopened last fortnight after being shut for close to seven months due to shortage of key raw material bauxite and the local tribals' opposition to mining from the nearby Niyamgiri hills.
Failure to source bauxite from within the state might force the London-listed company to reconsider its 1-million-tonne-per-year plant, which has already been shut several times due to a shortage of the raw material.