Vedanta Alumina Ltd, a unit of London-based Vedanta Resources Plc, has started dispatching alumina from its green field plant at Lanjigarh in Orissa’s Kalahandi district.
Sources in the company told FE that the first consignment of 50 tonne was dispatched on August 21 to Bharat Aluminium Company’s (Balco) aluminium facilities at Korba in Chhattisgarh.
Balco, also a unit of Vedanta Resources Plc, has two smelters of 3,45,000 tonne total capacity. The company recently announced to ramp up its metal capacity to 1m tonne.
Vedanta sources said the requirement of alumina for Balco will be met from the Orissa refinery.
The alumina from the Orissa plant is of high quality, the sources said. Vedanta plant produced alumina of 1.7 micron, which is less than the benchmark of 45 micron. The quality is better than Nalco’s alumina, which is about 8 to 9 micron.
However, the sources added that with higher production, quality might suffer. Lesser the micron, the better is the quality of alumina.
Commercial production at the 1.4 million tonne plant was started with outsourced bauxite on August 14, 2007.
Vedanta has entered into a joint venture with Orissa Mining Corporation (OMC) for sourcing bauxite from the Niyamgiri mines in the state.
The company is also setting up a 2.5 lakh tonne aluminium smelter and a 1000mw thermal plant at Jharsuguda in Orissa.