NALCO's shares surge on bagging Pottangi Bauxite mines

The National Aluminium Company (NALCO), under the Ministry of Mines and Government of India has bagged  the much awaited Pottangi Bauxite Mines, based in Odisha, Kolhapur. The lease of 50 years has been granted in the mines that contain 22.75 lakh tonne aluminium spread across 1738 hectares.

NALCO made the announcement late evening on Wednesday. The shares of on Thursday opened with a gap-up at Rs. 50.80 i.e. 5.6 per cent up from the previous close. A couple of sessions back the shares had surged after Alcoa, one of the largest aluminium producers in the world reported better than expected Q2 earnings.

Earlier in April 2016, NALCO had registered record bauxite and aluminium production in FY2015-16 with an all-time high of 63.40 lakh tonnes of bauxite and 19.53 lakh tonnes of aluminium reporting more than 10 and 5 per cent increase respectively from the corresponding period of previous year. Going forward NALCO aims at 68.25 lakh tonnes of bauxite and 21.5 lakh tonnes of aluminium in 2016-17 and thereby bagging of Pottangi mines is likely to give a positive jerk.

The additional source of bauxite was necessary for the company considering its expansion plans, including the proposed addition of 5th stream in its existing Alumina Refinery at an investment of Rs. 5,600 crores. The expansion plan has been cleared by the High Level Clearance Authority.