Vedanta not to shut down its Odisha refinery plant

BHUBANESWAR: Anil Agarwal-owned Vedanta has decided not to close down its one million tonne per annum refinery plant at Lanjigarh in Odisha’s Kalahandi district even as it is running at 50 percent capacity due to the shortage of raw material to feed the plant.

Vedanta refinery’s Chief Operating Officer (COO) Abhijit Pati said the company is incurring Rs 3 crore loss per day due to the scarcity of raw material.

“The plant requires at least 3 lakh metric tonne 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”, said Pati after discussing the raw material issue with chief secretary G.C. Pati.

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

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

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

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