Ashapura's bentonite production to rise to 1 mn tonne

Ashapura Minechem Ltd, the largest bentonite producing country in India, expects its bentonite production to touch one million tonne in fiscal 2010-11. This was informed by Chetan Shah, CEO and managing director, Ashapura Minechem, at a conference on Opportunities and Challenges in Mineral and Mining Sector in Ahmedabad.

"We will be able to produce 1 million tonne of bentonite this year and 60 per cent is for exports," he said.

The company's bentonite output stood at 700,000 tonne in 2009-10. Ashapura, a muti-mineral solutions provider, has extensive reserves of both types of sodium and calcium-based bentonite in Kutch.

Bentonite products cater to a wide range of industries starting from the conventional usage areas of iron ore pelletisation, drilling, metal casting, construction, pet litter etc. to value added areas such as paper and detergents.

 

Informing them that there is a tremendous scope in minerals industry, Shah said that India has bauxite reserves of three billion tonne, which could generate 30 million tonne of alumina.

Gujarat's bauxite reserves are estimated at 170 million tonne using which 1 million tonne of alumina could be produced.