ET reported that National Aluminium Company, JSW Steel and Jaiprakash Industries have evinced interest in setting up an alumina refinery and aluminium smelter in Kutch. The 1 million tonne per annum alumina refinery project and 0.5 million TPA smelter project involves expenditure of INR 10,000 crore.
State PSU Gujarat Mineral Development Corporation GMDC had invited Expression of Interest earlier this month for joint development of the mines as a part of its recent policy of adding value to minerals before they are transported out of the state. The GMDC has huge reserves of plant grade and non-plant Bauxite at Gadhsisa in Kutch and Kalyanpur in Jamnagar.
While Gadhsisa has a potential of mining 1 million tonne per annum bauxite, Kalyanpur has a capacity of 1.25 million tonne per annum. Kalyanpur has 60 million tonnes, Porbandar 20 million tonnes Plant grade bauxite is used in refractories and chemical industries while non plant grade bauxite is exported. The bids stipulated that companies should have executed an alumina refinery or aluminium smelter or a power plant or a cement plant or steel plant with a minimum investment of INR 1,500 crore.
We have received bids from the NALCO, JSW steel and JP Industries so far. Earlier, the last date for submitting the EoI was November 11th 2010 but due to festive season of Diwali and demand from industries we have extended the date to November 22nd 2010.
Mr VS Gadhvi MD of GMDC said that the evaluation of bids will take about two months and approval as well as associated process will take about four months. So, we expect the project to take off in about 6 months.
While the central PSU NALCO is already active in mining of bauxite, JSW steel manufactures steel. JP Industries manufactures cement. Earlier in November 2009, the state government came out with a policy of adding value to raw minerals within the state instead of exporting them in raw form.
（Sourced from Economic Times）
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