.........BHUBANESWAR: IT will be difficult for Vedanta to get prospecting licence (PL) or mining lease of any bauxite mines in Orissa in the near future following rejection of stage-I forest clearance from the proposed mining project in Niyamgiri by Union Ministry of Environment and Forests.


Steel and Mines Minister Raghunath Mohanty said though Vedanta is ready to take bauxite from any other alternative mines to run its refinery at Lanjigarh after denial of permission to mine in Niyamgiri hills, it will have to wait for long to get raw material from within the State.

“We will follow guidelines set according to laws for allocating any mines to any company including Vedanta,” Mohanty told reporters here. Though Vedanta had already applied for seven bauxite mines in the State, the Government could not allot raw material reserve to it at its will, as “we have to follow rules,” he said.

Vedanta had applied for small reserves located at Karlapat, Sijumali, Tukurmali, Kasumali, Bijimali and Sabarmali hills, he said. Besides Vedanta, other companies had also applied for PL for these six bauxite reserves in the State. Therefore, it would be a tough job for the State Government to reject other applications in order to give priority to Vedanta. There are large number of applications for these six mines and hearing will take time, he said.

The Minister said Vedanta has applied for these small reserves which were located within 10 km from its refinery unit at Lanjigarh, but the small mines had only 12.28 million tonne of bauxite, too small to meet the requirement of the refinery, he said.

He said the company had applied for Karlapat mines in 2003 while for other six mines it had applied in 2006-07.

Vedanta is the single applicant for very small mines in Rayagada district whose area is less than a hectare, he said.

The Minister said there is no hurry on the part of the government to allot mines to Vedanta nor the company has applied for any new mines after the denial of permission by the Centre to mine from Niyamgiri.

As Vedanta has also been accorded permission by the State Government to expand its refinery capacity from one mtpa to six mtpa, the six reserves (totaling only 12.28 million tonne) were located in close proximity to the refinery unit would be finished within two years. Orissa has reserves of 1805.48 million tonne of bauxite.