The 1Mt/y refinery and 500kt/y smelter will cost about project involves expenditure of INR100bn ($2.2bn).
The state PSU Gujarat Mineral Development Corporation (GMDC) had invited earlier this month for the 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 (Saurashtra region).
While Gadhsisa has a mining potential of 1Mt/y bauxite, Kalyanpur has a capacity of 1.25Mt/y. Kalyanpur (Jamnagar) has 60Mt, Porbandar 20Mt. 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 INRs15bn ($331M).
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 six months,” said Mr V S Gadhvi, managing director of GMDC.
