Balco will soon have 7 lakh tonne capacity: Vedanta

 Vedanta Resources on Friday said the company plans to increase the capacity of its Balco facility to 7 lakh tonnes per annum from one lakh tonnes per annum.

"When we took over Balco it was producing one lakh tonnes per annum of aluminium... We are taking it to 7 lakh tonnes per annum as quickly as possible," Chairman Vedanta Resources Anil Aggarwal said.

The company is willing to pick up 10 per cent stake in any aluminium facility which would process the aluminium produced at Balco. "We can pick up to 10 per cent stake," Aggarwal said. On the Balco open offer, he said, "Government is saying they are going for e-auction, if it is suitable, we would accommodate it."

The company is also expanding the capacity of its 1,200 MW power plant, to feed the aluminium unit, to 2000 MW.

"State government has done everything to speed up the entire process, we will add 800 MW to that unit soon," he added. Vedanta's refinery plant at Lanjigarh in Odisha, which was temporarily shutdown on October 13, has restartedafter procuring bauxite from Chhattisgarh and Gujarat.