Mining operations resume at Nalco mines

The mining operations at National Aluminum Company’s (Nalco’s) Panchapatmali bauxite mines near Damanjodi in Orissa’s Koraput district resumed today following talks between the mining employees’ association and the company authorities. The mining activities at Asia’s largest bauxite mines had come to a halt since the Naxalite attack on the mines on April 12, in which 11personnel of the Central Industrial Security Forces (CISF) were killed. Nalco had suffered a production loss of over 100,000 tonnes of bauxite due to the suspension of the mining operations, said sources.

However, the suspension in mining activities had not affected Nalco’s production of alumina and aluminium as the company has sufficient stocks of bauxite.

Meanwhile, bowing to the demands of the employees’ union, the company authorities, for the time being, have agreed to restrict mining work only to A shift (6 am to 2 pm) and the general shift in office (8 am to 5 pm), sources said.