TNI Bureau: Vedanta Aluminium Ltd (VAL) announced a temporary shutdown of its alumina refinery plant at Lanjigarh in Odisha due to lack of bauxite. The company had decided to close the refinery plant on December 5, but the scarcity of raw material did not permit it to continue till the scheduled declared date.
The refinery plant, which has been struggling for bauxite since 2007 when it was commissioned, had informed the state government last month about its decision to close the plant for temporary period from December 5. However, Vedanta was forced to shut down as it had no other alternatives.
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The plant requires 10,000 tonnes of bauxite a day to operate at full capacity of one million tonnes a year. There are many reasons behind the shortage of the raw material apart from poor monsoon condition and regulatory issues. The bauxite, which has been exported from the country on large scale, was also responsible for scarcity of the raw material in the state..
The company did not give exact date when the operation would resume. The closure of the refinery would hit livelihood of more than 5000 people employed in the plant.