| "We have identified about 1,500 acres of land, which is owned by the government. The other 1,500 acres are private-owned. The process of acquisition has begun and should be over within a year," said Sandeep Gokhale, who recently took over as director of business development. |
| Other clearances, including the environment one, should be in place by March next year, he added. |
| Last year, the company had signed a memorandum of understanding with the Andhra Pradesh government to set up a refinery and smelter plant near Vishakapatnam. JSW Aluminium was formed to implement the project. |
| The ground digging work for the 1.4-million tonne per annum alumina refinery will begin by April 2007. "About seven months later, the construction should start. By early 2008, work should start on the 2,50,000-tonne per annum aluminium smelter," said Gokhale. The refinery will go onstream by 2010 and operations in the smelter should begin a year later, he added. |
| The company has tied up with the Andhra Pradesh Mineral Development Corporation (APMDC) to source the bauxite for the refinery. The mines are located near Araku and APMDC is expected to get the clearance from the central government "soon." The project also includes a 600-mw captive power plant. "It could be either based on natural gas or imported coal. We are yet to decide," said Gokhale. |
| The first phase is being financed by a 70:30 mix of debt and equity. "We are looking at various options. It includes issuing preference shares and commodity-linked bonds, where companies who invest, can later buy the product for the value," added Gokhale. |
| He however, didn't rule out the possibility of coming out with an initial public offering in the second phase. "But we don't have anything in the horizon at the moment," clarified Gokhale. |
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