IndiaIndia's NALCO looking for Uranium in Namibia
Though Nalco's joint bid to acquire a copper mine in Namibia has come undone with the mine owner withdrawing the offer, an undeterred NALCO has now turned its gazeto the country's uranium assets.
Author: Shivom Seth
Posted: Wednesday , 08 Sep 2010
India's largest state-owned company, the National Aluminium Company (NALCO) is planning to scout around for uranium assets in Namibia. The company is eyeing uranium for the nuclear power plant it plans to set up on the east coast of India, in Orissa's Ganjam district. The plant will be set up jointly with the Nuclear Power Corporation of India Limited (NPCIL).
Nalco is one of the largest producers of power in Orissa with a 1200 MW captive thermal power plant near its aluminium smelter at Angul, in the state of Orissa. At present, the aluminium giant produces 1.6 million tonnes alumina from its refineries in Orissa. It produced 3.6 lakh tonne aluminium last year.
The proposed nuclear power plant is to be the first in India after the signing of the Indo-US nuclear deal. The details on the proposed nuclear power plant and the joint venture company to be formed by Nalco and NPCIL are yet to be worked out, said a senior official of Nalco.
A Nalco official also told mediapersons in Mumbai that the company was trying to get allotment of some leases for uranium in Namibia. Based on indicative results, NALCO would then enter into a joint venture for exploration.
Last year, India and Namibia signed an agreement to work together to explore for mineral resources, including gold , diamonds and uranium. This would pit the firm directly against mining majors like Rio Tinto, which have been on the African continent for around 3 decades.
Following that agreement, NALCO and Hindustan Copper jointly bid to acquire a copper mine in the African nation, but it fell through a few weeks ago when the mine owner, Weatherly International, withdrew the sale offer halfway through the due diligence process. The African firm said it had got funds to re-start operations. Weatherly International, which holds leases on most of Namibia's copper reserves, had suspended the mine's operations in September 2008, due to the global recession. Subsequently, East China Mineral Exploration sealed a deal for a 51% stake in Weatherly's Namibian operations, but failed to follow it up, allowing NALCO and Hindustan Copper to move in. With the change of status, this deal too seems to have come undone.
NALCO, which is looking to move away from its status as a single commodity aluminium company is also said to be working on setting up a five-lakh-tonne smelter and an integrated 1250 MW power plant in Indonesia, a project which will cost about $3.9 billion. The company has said it will import required alumina to run the smelter from its India operations. The company is looking for captive coal block to run the plant as well.
Officials pointed out that apart from Chile, Namibia and Indonesia, Nalco is also trying to get its hand on the resources in Mongolia, Ukraine, Uzbekistan, Senegal, Surinam, Zambia and Congo, to feed its needs.
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