The Hindu Business Line : Vedanta in talks with 3 potential partners for Orissa steel plant

(From left) Mr Sushil Gupta, CFO, Sterlite Copper; Mr Anil Agarwal, Chairman, Vedanta Resources plc; Mr Kishore Kumar, CEO, Sterlite Copper at the inauguration of the aluminium fluoride plant in Karaikudi on Sunday.

M. Ramesh

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Karaikudi, May 25

The Vedanta Group is in talks with three potential partners for jointly setting up a 5 mt steel plant in Orissa, the Group’s Chairman, Mr Anil Agarwal, said here on Sunday.

“We are talking to one Japanese company, one European company and one Indian company for partnering with us for the steel project,” he said, adding that Vedanta was not averse to giving a majority stake to the partner.

Mr Agarwal was here in connection with the setting up of a Rs 100-crore, 13,000-tonne aluminium fluoride plant here. The plant was inaugurated here by the Union Finance Minister, Mr P. Chidambaram. The project is being put up by a joint venture of Sterlite Industries (part of the Vedanta group) and Maya Rasayan Ltd. The aluminium fluoride produced by the company will be utilised to meet the requirements of Vedanta group’s aluminium smelters.

Expansion plans

At a press conference here, Mr Agarwal said that the proposed steel project could use the iron ore mined by Sesa Goa, another company of the Vedanta group. Incidentally, Sesa Goa has a presence in shipping operations. The group intends to leverage this expertise and eventually get into shipping and port handling, Mr Agarwal said. A separate company is likely to be set up under Sesa Goa for shipping and logistics.

Mr Agarwal said that the group would invest $9 billion to expand its operations in metal production and power generation.

Govt stake

Answering a question, he said that he was waiting for a response from the Government for buying out the Government’s stake in Bharat Aluminium Company and Hindustan Zinc Ltd. The group acquired 51 per cent and 64.9 per cent respectively in the two companies. It has since exercised its call options for buying out the residual stake of the Government. The outlay for the buy-out would work out to around Rs 10,000 crore, Mr Agarwal said.

Gold, silver presence

The Vedanta group is set to grow its presence in precious metals too. At present, Hindustan Zinc produces 110 tonnes of silver as a by-product in the production of zinc.

Now the capacity of the Sindesar Kurd mine in Rajasthan is being expanded from 0.3 mt to 1.5 mt. Consequently, silver production is set to increase five times over the next couple of years.

Alongside, the group has also finalised plans to put up a gold refinery in Dubai. The refinery will use the ‘anode slime’ that comes out as a slag from Sterlite Industries’ copper smelter at Tuticorin. The Dubai plant will produce 20 tonnes of gold and 80 tonnes of silver each year.

Apart from these, the group is also looking at getting exploratory licences for prospecting for chromium in Orissa and Jharkhand.

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Vedanta plans Rs 7,000-cr aluminium smelter in Orissa

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