After more than half the gramsabhas in the tribal villages opposed bauxite mining in the Niyamgiri hills, Vedanta Aluminium will discuss the fallout with the Odhisa government soon but will continue to operate the plant by sourcing raw material from other sources.

A company official said that our priority is to run the plant through domestic supplies of raw material. However, we will discuss the issue (of opposition to mining in the Niyamgiri hills) with the state administration soon.

The 1 million tonne Vedanta's alumina plant at Lanjigarh in the southern part of the mineral rich state was reopened last fortnight after being shut for close to seven months due to shortage of key raw material bauxite and the local tribals' opposition to mining from the nearby Niyamgiri hills.

Noting that the plant is running only at 60% capacity, the official said under its contractual agreement with the Odisha government, the state has to supply around 150 MT of bauxite over 25 year period.

The official said that we will discuss the matter over sourcing of bauxite with the state government soon. At present, the plant is being run using ore from the neighboring Jharkhand and Chhattisgarh. Currently, there is no decision on importing bauxite for running operations.