Vedanta expanding its smelting capacity to 2.5 mn tonne

Vedanta Aluminium, an associate company of the globally-diversified metals and mining group Vedanta Resources PLC, hopes to complete its ambitious Rs 60,000 crore smelting capacity expansion project by the next fiscal, a top official said here today.

The smelting capacity will be raised to 2.5 million tonne per annum, from around 1.6 million tonnes at present, Managing Director of Vedanta Aluminium S K Roongta said.

"We are already through with spending 75% of the total investment (Rs 60,000 crore) outlay for the expansion.

"We hope to complete all the pending works soon and enhance smelting capacity to 2.5 million tonnes per annum by next fiscal (2012-13)," Roongta told reporters on the sidelines of the 6th International Conference on Aluminium (INCAL) which began here.

Apart from spending on large smelters, the investment has been undertaken for setting up captive power plants at two locations in Orissa, he said.

Replying to a query, he said the primary concern for all Aluminium producers of the country is the delay in auctioning the coal blocks.

"We hope that the auctioning of the coal blocks takes place at the earliest. In the meantime, we will evaluate all options of sourcing coal to expand our smelting capacity," Roongta added.

According to him, it is economically unviable and unfeasible for Indian companies to import coal.

"We can mine coal at the cheapest rate in the world -- $10 per tonne through surface mining, and $35 per tonne through underground mining. These are still the cheapest rates.

"If we import coal, companies have to pay for the ocean freight; port handling charges and inland transportation, a model, which is not sustainable for the companies as well as the country in the long term", he observed.

Vedanta Aluminium is part of a consortium of six firms, which have been allocated a coal block with an estimated reserve of 645 million tonnes.

Roongta hoped that the issues relating to Bauxite mining are resolved at the earliest.