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With private sector companies out of the fray, the Gujarat Government is likely to take a call in the next two months on whether State-promoted Gujarat Minerals Development Corporation Ltd (GMDC) should form a joint venture with the National Aluminium Company Ltd (Nalco) or sign a long-term non-plant grade bauxite supply agreement with the Navratna behemoth for the proposed manufacturing facility in Kutch district.
“The expressions of interest (EoI) we received from many companies for an alumina and smelter plant based on non-plant grade bauxite reserves were technically examined by the Nagpur-based Jawaharlal Nehru Aluminium Research Development and Design Centre of the Government of India. After financial examination, only the Odisha-headquartered Nalco was found to fulfill our criteria,” Mr V.S. Gadhvi, Managing Director, GMDC, told Business Line.
He said now GMDC's Board of Directors would take a decision on Nalco's financial bid, submitted recently, before December 31 this year. This would be followed by the State Government's decision on whether GMDC should go in for a 26 per cent equity partnership with Nalco in a joint venture or, alternately, sign a long-term bauxite supply agreement with it.
Kutch has 63 million tonnes of non-plant grade bauxite reserves.
The capacity of the proposed plant would be production of five lakh tonnes of smelter and 10 lakh tonnes of refined alumina per annum. This would involve an investment of Rs 10,000-12,000 crore, he added.
Earlier, Ashapura Minechem, a bauxite miner and exporter, had signed an MoU with GMDC for the plant but did not execute it, and fresh EoIs were invited.
Last year, GMDC had signed an agreement with the Anil Agarwal-promoted Vedanta Resources for sale of 5.07 lakh tons of medium-grade bauxite for the latter's plant in Odisha. Vedanta shipped about 60,000 tonnes of bauxite per month to offset the shortfall caused by ban in mining in the Niyamgiri mines.
The Gujarat Government had, last year, banned the export of plant-grade bauxite outside the State.
As of now, Gujarat has 18.75 million tonnes of mineable high (plant) grade bauxite ore reserves in 10 locations and eight times the reserves of medium-grade bauxite.
With environment clearance awaited for some other proposed mining sites, its reserves are expected to double. At present, GMDC is mining about 1 lakh tonnes of plant grade and 8 lakh tonnes of medium-grade bauxite annually.
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