PTI reported that the country’s largest aluminium maker Vedanta Aluminium is unlikely to start operations at its Lanjigarh unit in the near future as it is yet to secure bauxite supply to run the plant.

Mr Mukesh Kumar President of Vedanta Aluminium said that “It is very difficult to give a timeline. Unless we get secured source of supply of raw material, we will not be able to reopen the plant.”

Mr Kumar said that there was no formal communication from the Odisha Government regarding supply of bauxite. Vedanta Aluminium had shut down its 1 million tonne Lanjigarh refinery unit a fortnight ago, due to shortage of bauxite.

The unit requires 10,000 tonnes of bauxite per day to run at full capacity. He said that the company was not able to source the bauxite from other states.

Earlier, the company sourced bauxites from Gujarat, Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh and Andhra Pradesh. However, after the halting of mining operations in Jharkhand and Chhattisgarh, the plant was not able to source raw material from other states.