In a major relief for the National Aluminium Company (Nalco), the Orissa government on Thursday assured the company that there would be no restriction on mining bauxite from the Panchapatmali mines in Koraput district.
As the lease tenure of the Nalco?s captive bauxite mines comes to an end on November 16, the firm was worried about sourcing raw material for its refinery at Damanjodi. There was apprehension that Nalco?s refinery and the smelter at Angul would be shut down for want of bauxite. In fact, the company is now left with only 10-15 days stock of bauxite.
The state government, however, said Nalco can operate the mines as deemed renewal. Rajesh Verma, the state steel and mines principal secretary, said Orissa will allow the lease to continue operation under deemed renewal. ?Since Nalco has already applied for the renewal of the lease, it will not be a problem for us to give the permission to operate the mines,? he added.
Nalco sources said that the company is in the process of renewing the mining lease. Since, it will take about 8 months to get the lease renewed, the company was looking for a renewed status. Stating that the company has initiated the process of getting the forest clearance from the ministry of environment and forest (MoEF), sources said the mines would not be operated on a temporary work permit for about one year. The Panchpatmali bauxite reserve is spread over 17.2 sq km area in Koraput district and has an estimated reserve of 360 million tonne. Nalco was allotted the lease of captive mines for 30 years in 1982. The company has now applied for the first renewal of the mining lease. The company is, however, facing problem in completing formalities because of a Maoist threat.
