Navratna company- National Aluminium Company (Nalco) has decided to freeze its foray into merchant mining operations for now. Nalco would rather focus on its core smelter and alumina expansion plans, a senior company executive said.
“We had announced to enter merchant mining as it figured in our business restructuring initiatives. But, Nalco has decided not to deal with merchant mining plans now and instead concentrate on its core aluminium business”, he said.
Nalco plans to set up a new greenfield smelter in Odisha at Kamakhyanagar. The site chosen for the new smelter is close to Gajamara in Dhenkanal district where Nalco is teaming up with power utility NTPC for setting up a 2400 Mw c0al-fired power station. This power project estimated to cost Rs 14,000 crore, will be implemented by a joint venture company titled NTPC-Nalco Power Company Ltd.
The proposed smelter’s capacity is pegged at 0.6 million tonne per annum. Power generated from the planned super thermal power station will feed this greenfield smelter.
The smelter’s location is also advantageous as water would be easily available at Gajamara, said he. The new smelter is expected to go on stream in nearly four years. This state-of-the-art smelter will make use of the latest in aluminium smelting technology.
Nalco is also going for brownfield expansion of its existing smelter project at Angul whose nameplate capacity is 0.46 mtpa. The navratna company has a Capex (capital expenditure) of Rs 10,000 crore to add 0.5 mtpa capacity to this smelter. Land and associated infrastructure needed for this smelter expansion is in place. With the expansion, Nalco hopes to prune cost of production and achieve economy of scale. The company will also deploy the latest technology to ensure reduced energy consumption and high productivity.
Besides, Nalco is going ahead with its plan to hunt for strategic mineral assets overseas. The aluminium company is all set to forge a joint venture (JV) company with Mineral Exploration Corporation Ltd (MECL) and Hindustan Copper Ltd (HCL).
In the JV company to be titled ‘Khanij Bidesh India Ltd’ (KABIL), Nalco would have an equity of 34 per cent. Both MECL and HCL’s shareholding is pegged at 33 per cent each.
The JV is tasked with identifying, exploring, acquiring, developing and processing the strategic minerals overseas for commercial use and for supplying to India to meet the domestic requirements due to its non-availability in the country and giving a boost to Make in India drive of the Government of India. The identified strategic minerals include tin, tungsten, titanium, gallium, lithium, tantalum, cobalt, niobium, selenium and indium. The objective is to make the country self-sufficient in such minerals.
The JV firm would hunt for such mineral assets primarily in South Africa and other African countries. It can either go for outright buyouts of the assets or forge tie-ups with local companies there.
Leave a Reply