NEW DELHI (Reuters) -India’s National Aluminium Company (NALCO) will invest a total of 300 billion rupees ($3.43 billion) in a new smelter and a coal power plant over the next five years, Chairman and Managing Director Brijendra Pratap Singh said on Thursday.
The state-run aluminium producer will budget roughly 180 billion rupees to set up the proposed smelter in the eastern Indian state of Odisha, Singh told reporters in New Delhi.
The project will be funded through a mix of debt and internal accruals, he added.
The remaining 120 billion rupees will be used to set up a coal power plant, for which it is in talks with Coal India and NTPC, Singh said.
Singh said NALCO was also looking to acquire new mines in the country to dig up coal and bauxite, the ore from which aluminium is produced.
It already operates bauxite mines and an alumina refinery in the state of Odisha.
The firm is also conducting eligibility studies at five mines in Argentina for lithium, a mineral used in making batteries for electric vehicles, Singh said.
Through its joint venture Khanij Bidesh India Limited (KABIL) – inked with Hindustan Copper and Mineral Exploration and Consultancy Limited – NALCO is also looking at equity investments in Australian lithium assets, he added.
India has been forming global partnerships to gain access to lithium mines.
($1 = 87.5060 Indian rupees)
(Reporting by Sethuraman N R, writing by Hritam Mukherjee, Editing by Anil D’Silva)
