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The second smelter and power complex is expected to cost Rs 14,000 crore. Of this, the aluminium smelter with annual capacity of 0.4 million tonne will come up at an investment of Rs 10,000 crore. It will be accompanied by a 500 Mw captive power plant costing Rs 3,000 crore.
The Navratna company, which had been scouting for sites within the state and abroad to build its second smelter, had earlier zeroed in on Sundergarh in western Odisha to locate the project. It had also got the state government's nod for the same.
However, infrastructural bottlenecks, particularly relating to sourcing of water, had forced the company to revisit the site and shift the location to Angul, where the company has been operating a 0.46 million tonne smelter and 1,200 Mw power plant since early 1980s.
At Angul, the infrastructure facilities, land and manpower are readily available. So there won't be any problem in setting up the new smelter there, said TK Chand, chairman and managing director (CMD), Nalco.
He said, the new smelter, will be built with latest technology, will use 600 amperage energy efficient smelting pots which will make the cost of production globally competitive.
What has bolstered Nalco's ambitious expansion plan, with combined investment figure pegged at Rs 30,000 crore, in the state is the recent allotment of Potangi bauxite deposits spread over 1738.04 hectares in favour of the company.
Using this bauxite, the company also intends to expand its alumina refinery capacity at Damanjodi facility by one million tonne.
At Damanjodi, Nalco produces about 2 million tonne of alumina annually, half of which is exported due to lack of smelting capacity under the company's command.
The new smelter will come in handy in converting this alumina to aluminium for value addition within the state, Chand said.
But pending the setting up of new smelting capacity in Odisha, the company is exploring the possibility of toll-smelting and construction of smelter in Iran to convert its surplus alumina into metal using the cheap gas based power available in the Gulf nation.
For this purpose, the Central public sector company has entered into a pact with Iranian Mines & Mining Industries Development & Renovation Organization (IMIDRO), a government-owned body of that country recently.
The additional smelting capacities, along with use of latest energy efficient technologies to reduce cost of production, will boost the topline and bottomline of the company, Chand said.
