Vedanta to invest 200 billion rupees over three years to expand aluminium capacity

BHUBANESWAR, India (Reuters) - Mining conglomerate Vedanta plans to invest 150 to 200 billion rupees ($2.93 billion) over three years to expand its alumina and aluminium producing capacity, said Anil Agarwal, chairman of Vedanta Resources Plc.

The company plans to expand the capacity of its Lanjigarh alumina refinery to 5 million tonnes from the current 2 million tonnes and double the capacity of its Jharsuguda aluminium smelter to 2 million tonnes.

Both the plants are located in Odisha.

Vedanta has been trying to expand the capacity of its refinery for almost 8 years now but a paucity of availability of bauxite, the raw material which is refined to make alumina, has proved a hurdle.

($1 = 68.3605 rupees)

(Reporting by Devidutta Tripathy)