Jayanta Mallick

Kolkata, Nov. 13 Public sector aluminium giant National Aluminium Company (Nalco) plans to enter nuclear power generation and distribution in partnership with Nuclear Power Corporation (NPC).

An MoU to launch a joint venture between the two organisations will be signed next week.

Confirming the development, Mr B. L. Bagra, Director, Finance, Nalco, told Business Line that the MoU would pave the way for a 1000-MW project.

“In addition to the equity participation by both the partners, the proposed MoU will also envisage raising of resources from the debt market,” Mr Bagra said. “NPC would be the majority partner in the proposed joint venture while issues such as project location, initial capital base and equity holding pattern would be sorted out in due course.”

NPC would be in charge of nuclear power generation. Nalco would primarily be involved in the transmission segment, including voltage regulation, erection and maintenance of sub-stations.

Nalco owns and operates a 1,080-MW thermal power plant in Orissa. It is also going in for a 1,250-MW thermal power plant in Indonesia for an alumina smelter there.

The diversification strategy of Nalco envisages leveraging expertise of the company in mining minerals and power generation. Nalco is choosing public sector organisations while selecting partners for its proposed diversification programmes.

Nalco has also proposed a joint venture with Hindustan Copper Ltd for copper mining. It signed an MoU with Hindustan Copper last year for joint prospecting, exploration and mining of copper within the country and abroad.

A draft joint venture agreement, which is under consideration by both the public sector mining companies, revolves around development of copper deposit at Banwas in Rajasthan. Hindustan Copper, which owns the mining lease, has not exploited it so far.

The Banwas deposit is estimated to have ore reserves of 22.5 million tonnes having 1.69 per cent copper content. Fully operational mining activity in this deposit is expected to produce 15,000 tonnes of minerals in concentrate annually.

Nalco also wants to have Hindustan Copper as its partner on its scouting mission in Namibia for copper. It has also begun preliminary discussions with Uranium Corporation of India for joint study of opportunity in Namibia for uranium as well.

“On a recent visit to the African country, we gathered primary geological data and interacted with the Namibian Government officials,” Mr Bagra said. “We are likely to explore possibilities there in some minerals.”

More Stories on : Aluminium | Diversification | Power | National Aluminium Co. Ltd

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