Nalco mulling smelter, power plant in Indonesia

Nalco is exploring the possibilities to set up aluminium smelter and power plant in Indonesia.

Minister of state for mines T Subbarami Reddy said in the Lok Sabha today that a team from Nalco had visited Indonesia in August to discuss the proposal with the Indonesian government.

He said another team from Nalco had visited Indonesia in November on invitation from the Indonesian authorities to discuss the project.

Replying to another question, Reddy said that Hindustan Copper has not incurred any losses in the last two years and would soon re-open its Surda mine in Jharkhand.

"The re-opening of the mine will require equipment, manpower and repair of concentrator plant and the mine would be re-opened after completion of these activities," he said.

He said GSI and MECL were in the process of acquiring latest technology through modernisation programmes to intensify their mineral exploration activities.

Replying to a question on critical information related to manufacture of missiles and space shuttle accessories, which allegedly went missing from Bharat Aluminium Company's (Balco) records, minister of mines Sis Ram Ola said, the report is false.

Balco is in the business of manufacturing primary aluminium and it has not been provided with any designs, drawings and research papers relating to the manufacture of special plates and body covers of fighter aircraft missiles and space shuttle accessories and the report of the same going missing is false, the minister said.