Bhubaneswar: The capacity expansion plans of Odisha based Ferrochrome producer Balasore Alloys, a part of the Ispat group of companies, has got a major fillip as its Sukinda Chromite mines has been granted Environmental Clearance (EC). The union Environment & Forest Ministry on 22 Aug, 2014 has granted the company’s application for enhancement of production from 0.42 MnT pa to 0.6 MnT pa and change in technology from opencast to opencast and underground mining at the Kaliapani Chromite mines located at Sukinda (Jajpur).
Production enhancement from the captive mine is crucial for Balasore Alloys as it plans to raise its Ferrochrome production from 1 lakh tonnes to 1.5 lakh tonnes.
The company currently produces about 3 lakh tonnes of Chrome ore annually and after the Environmental Clearance, it’ll increase its production to 4 lakh tonnes pa, which will easily cater its expanded Ferrochrome capacity. For making 1 MT of Ferrochrome about 2.5 MT of Chrome ore is required.
Total mining area of the mines is around 64.4 hectres and it has mining reserves of 26.89 MnT. Indian Bureau of Mines has already approved the modified mining plan of the mine.
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