Odisha wants Sasubohumali bauxite mines for OMC

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After securing the Karlapat bauxite mine in favour of Odisha Mining Corporation (OMC), the state government has moved the Union mines ministry to reserve yet another bauxite deposit - Sasubohumali mine in the name of the state-owned PSU.

"The government has already written to the central mines ministry to reserve the Sasubohumali bauxite mine in OMC's favour. We are awaiting the approval from the ministry," said a top official source.

The Sasubohumali bauxite mine in Rayagada district has an estimated reserve of 81 million tonne bauxite.

The ministry had recently allocated the Karlapat bauxite mine to OMC. Karlapat, spread over 3,002.49 hectares, has estimated reserves of 207 million tonne which includes 153 tonne proven reserve and 54 million tonne probable reserve. The state government had sought reservation of the bauxite mine for 30 years, arguing that it will ensure fair and equitable distribution of the raw material.

The government felt such an arrangement will help accrue more economic returns for the state by way of royalty, taxes and dividend, thereby providing more funds for developmental activities.

Reservation of bauxite mines for OMC can come to the rescue to aluminium makers in the state, particularly Vedanta, that has been running a one million tonne alumina refinery without any captive mine.

The refinery was continuing operations at a low capacity on bauxite sourced from Gujarat and Chattisgarh and also imports from nations like New Guinea. OMC had entered into an agreement with Vedanta for supplying 150 million tonne of bauxite for the Lanjigarh refinery.

The attempts to supply bauxite from Niyamgiri deposits to the Vedanta alumina refinery were thwarted with the Union ministry of environment and forest (MoEF) withdrawing the clearances to the mining project.