SC clears hurdle in reopening of Nalco's bauxite mine

Company expects temporary working permit in couple of days

The public sector National Aluminium Company (Nalco) has heaved a sigh of relief with Supreme Court condoning the delay in submission of its forest diversion proposal for renewal of bauxite mine lease.

With this, the hurdles in the path of the company in obtaining a temporary working permit (TWP) to operate its Panchpatmali bauxite mine has been cleared.

While seeking renewal of the Panchpatmali mining lease, Nalco had applied for forest diversion one year and ten months before the expiry of the lease tenure on November 16, this year, whereas the Supreme Court has stipulated that a company has to apply for forest diversion at least two years before the end of the lease period.

This two month delay was pointed out by Union Ministry of Environment and Forest (MoEF) while considering Nalco’s request for grant of TWP to operate the mine.

Though MoEF, in principle, had agreed to give temporary working permit to Nalco, it had asked the company to approach the apex court for condonement of the lapse.

“Supreme Court condoned the delay today and we expect the MoEF to give us working permit within a couple of day,” Anshuman Das, chairman and managing director, Nalco told Business Standard.

TWP is essential to resume mining operation by the company which has stopped bauxite excavation since November 16.

Halt of operation at Panchpatmalli mines had raised concerns on bauxite availability for Nalco’s alumina refinery at Damanjodi in Koraput district.

Sources said, the refinery is currently running at a low capacity using the bauxite stocked up prior to the crisis. The company had built up a bauxite stock of about 2, 50, 000 tonne, but the pile was depleting fast.

“After today’s development, we expect to resume bauxite mining in another 4 to 5 days and bring back the refinery to its full capacity by the end of next week,” Das said.

The North-Central block of the Panchpatmali mine with deposits of around 300 million tonne, is spread over an area of 1,315 hectares (ha), out of which 1,294 ha falls under forest land.