By IANS,
Bhubaneswar : State-run National Aluminium Ltd. (NALCO) Tuesday said it has resumed operations at its bauxite mine in Odisha’s Koraput district after a month-long disruption.
NALCO’s director for production S.S. Mohapatra said the mining activities were resumed Monday night and shipments of the raw materials from the mine to the refinery located nearby also have been commenced.
“We have re-started operations of our bauxite mine,” Mohapatra told IANS. “We have been given a temporary work permit to operate the mine for one year,” he said.
The Panchpatmali mine at Damanjodi, about 370 km from here, has a deposit of more than 310 million tonnes of bauxite reserve. The renewal of the lease was due Nov 17.
The company had applied for a temporary work permit from the authorities to resume operations as lease renewal was a complex and time consuming process.
“We utilised this period in replacing the new wire ropes of the conveyor belt and overhauling of bauxite crushers that was due and performed once in every five-year,” he said.
The Bhubaneswar headquartered NALCO is India’s third largest aluminium maker. It had produced 50.03 lakh tonnes of bauxite, 16.87 lakh tonnes of alumina and 4.13 lakh tonnes of aluminium in 2011-2012 fiscal.