The state government in its MoU with Vedanta in 2004 had committed to supply 150 million tonne of bauxite for its alumina refinery at Lanjigarh.
With the Centre denying permission for mining in Niyamgiri hills in Kalahandi district the Orissa government is finding it tough to provide 150 tonne million tonne of bauxite to the Vedanta Group as promised.
"The state government in its MoU with Vedanta in 2004 had committed to supply 150 million tonne of bauxite for its alumina refinery at Lanjigarh," a top company executive said.
Pointing out that the state's 11 bauxite sites had 54.89% of the country's total bauxite reserve, he said Orissa could not do much without the help of the Centre.
Though the Vedanta Group was ready to take bauxite from any other alternative mine to run its refinery after being denied permission to mine in the Niyamgiri hills, it would have to wait for long to get the raw material from within the state, he said.
"We will follow guidelines set according to laws for allocating any mines to any company including Vedanta," steel and mines minister Raghunath Mohanty told reporters here.
Though Vedanta has already applied for seven bauxite mines in the state, the government could not allot raw material reserve to it at its will, as "we have to follow rules," he said.
While the state owned Orissa Mining Corporation (OMC) already has prospecting license for two major unexplored bauxite reserves at Niyamgiri and Gandhamardan, Vedanta had applied for small reserves located at Karlapat, Sijumali, Tukurmali, Kasumali, Bijimali and Sabarmali hills.
Besides Vedanta, other companies had also applied for PL for six other bauxite reserves in the state. Therefore, it would be a tough job for the state government to reject other applications in order to give priority to Vedanta, an official at the steel and mines department said.
Vedanta had eyes on small reserves which were located within 10km from its refinery unit at Lanjigarh, but the small mines had only 12.28 million tonne of bauxite, too small to meet the requirement of the refinery, he said.
As Vedanta has also been accorded permission by the state government to expand its refinery capacity from 1 mtpa to 6 mtpa, the six reserves (totalling only 12.28 million tonne) were located in close proximity to the refinery unit would be finished within two years.
Orissa has reserves of 1805.48 million tonne of bauxite.
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