Coal news and updates

NALCO actively pursuing for allocation of a coal block

National Aluminium Company has said it is actively pursuing for allocation of a coal block for its proposed Rs 16,540 crore aluminium smelter project in Odisha's Sundargarh district. The greenfield venture is poised to be the state owned aluminium major's second project in its home state. The project, which involves the setting up of a 0.5 million tonne (mt) smelter unit along with a power plant of 1260 MW capacity, has received approval from High Level Clearance Authority of Odisha.

"We are pursuing coal block which would be necessary to make the project viable. The selection of a site and preliminary land survey is currently underway for the proposed project," Ansuman Das, chairman and managing director of Nalco said at the company's 32 ndannual general meeting at Bhubaneswar on Friday. His comment underlines the extent to which the fate of the company's new project is dependent on availability of a captive coal block. The aluminium major suffered setbacks in power generation due to shortages in coal supply and a conscious decision taken against use of imported coal, last year. Nalco has thus been forced to decide on a production cutback and operate 625 out of 960 pots in its smelter plant based mostly on power generated from linkage coal.

 In step with its focus on achieving coal security, Nalco is also investing Rs 340 crore in Utkal-E coal clock project which is due to be operational by December 2014. The block has a mineable reserve of 67.49 mt and will be vital for making the company's operations cost effective. "We are expediting the project. All necessary clearances have been obtained. Activities for acquisition of government as well as private land, forest clearance, construction of R&R colony and appointment of mine developer & operator (MDO) are progressing," Mr Das said.

 While domestic consumption of aluminium grew by 7% to 1.68 mt in 2012-13, the sector poised to grow at 7-8% annually with major drivers being power generation & transmission, building and construction and the auto sector.Nalco is thus betting big on the future of the white metal. The company is also investing Rs 5,500 crore in a one million tonne alumina refinery in Gujarat for which bauxite will be supplied by Gujarat Mineral Development Corporation. A detailed project report on it is under preparation, Nalco's chairman said. "Aluminium sector in India is poised to grow at 7-8% annually with major drivers being power generation & transmission, building and construction and the auto sector. The industry is striving to grow with new products and markets. A lot however, shall depend on opening up of new bauxite mines with due statutory clearances and availability of coal blocks to the alunminium sector for captive power generation ," Mr Das said. Against this, aluminium production capacity is slated to grow to 3 mt from 1.7 mt at present, if all the greenfield and brownfield projects come on stream in near future.

Source: The Economic Times