Ahmedabad: Gujarat government, last week, okayed the Rs 12,000-crore investment plan by National Aluminium Company in Gujarat to set up an alumina and smelter plant. The approval has cleared the way for Nalco and state-owned Gujarat Mineral Development Corporation to set up a joint venture, a senior official from Gujarat's department of industries and mines said. GMDC will have a 26% stake in the joint venture.
The project is expected to be set up on the lines units installed by the UK-based Vedanta group in Orissa, but will use better technology, the GMDC official said.
The project will be set up in two phases. In the first phase, Nalco will invest Rs 4,400 crore in an alumina plant with a capacity of 10 lakh tonnes per annum. The remaining investment will come in the second phase that will also see setting up of a five lakh per annum capacity smelter plant. GMDC will supply 30 lakh tonnes of bauxite sourced from Gadshisa and surrounding mines in Kutch to Nalco. In addition to the price of bauxite, GMDC will also get a 26% share from the profit, earned by Nalco from the sale of the final product.
"Till now bauxite mined from Gujarat was sold to buyers outside the state. Now, the mineral will stay in the state and generate employment through value-addition," said GMDC mnaging director VS Gadhvi.
Kutch has 63 million tonnes of non-plant grade bauxite reserves. GMDC has reserves of plant grade and non plant Bauxite at Gadhsisa in Kutch and Kalyanpur in Jamnagar (Saurashtra region). While Gadhsisa has a potential of mining one million TPA Bauxite, Kalyanpur has a capacity of 1.25 million TPA. Plant grade bauxite is used in refractories and chemical industries, while non plant grade bauxite is exported.
Bauxite miner and exporter Ashapura Minechem had earlier signed a memorandum of understanding with GMDC for the plant but did not execute it. Fresh EoIs were then invited. Companies who had expressed interest include US-based AluChem Inc, Russia-based UC RUSAL, Dubai-based Dubai Aluminium Limited (DUBAL), and Indian companies like Adani Enterprise, Aditya Birla group, NALCO, JSW steel and Jaiprakash Industries.
The proposals were examined by Nagpur-based Jawaharlal Nehru Aluminium Research Development and Design Centre of the Government of India. After a comparative analysis, NALCO was selected for the project.
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