STERLITE INDUSTRIES INDIA LIMITED
Lanjigarh, Odisha, October 22, 2014: Sesa Sterlite Limited's business unit at Lanjigarh in Odisha has adopted two innovative measures of sustainable engagement of waste namely Red Mud Powder Plant and Cement Free Green Concrete. The Lanjigarh unit which operates an aluminium refinery and an associated captive power plant, is the first company in the world to develop cement free fast setting geopolymer concrete by using fly ash, a waste product of the power plant. It is also the first aluminium company to start a Red Mud Powder Plant, designed to separate water from red mud slurry. Red mud is a waste formed from the refining of bauxite that produces alumina as raw material for the electrolysis of aluminium.
The generation of wet red mud is nearly one and half times of alumina. It cannot be disposed of easily and tends to be pumped into holding ponds which are vulnerable to earth movements and can create serious environmental threat. The Red Mud Powder Plant does away with wet red mud storage as the slurry is alkaline in nature. It minimizes land requirement by more than 50 per cent. The project is automatic and is also, equipped to make effective utilization of a waste matter. The capital expenditure of the plant is Rs 50 crore. The patent of this technology is under process.
"Due to commissioning of the Dry Red Mud Powder Plant, utilization of water is also reduced. The red mud accumulated in the red mud pond is also removed and sold to cement plants as per demand," said Dr N Prasad, Director, MOEF, RO Bhubaneshwar.
The development of geopolymer concrete by Lanjigarh's business unit was undertaken in collaboration with CSIR- Institute of Minerals and Materials Technology (IMMT), Bhubaneswar. The use of fly ash in cement free concrete not only minimizes Green House Gas Emission but will also solve the problem of fly Ash disposal which is faced by power plants in India and save large quantities of water.
The concrete is named as 'Cold Setting Geo-Polymer Concrete' due to its properties of fast setting in ambient conditions. The concrete is truly 'Green', as water is required only at the time of preparing the mixture and thereafter, no water curing is required, saving not only huge quantity of
water but labour as well, as the concrete is stabilized in less than 6 hours. At the Lanjigarh business unit, roads have been made of Cement Free Green Concrete, and future plans include progressively eradicating the use of cement in other construction projects.
"We pursue a Zero Harm philosophy and our Lanjigarh refinery's road map for Zero Discharge and Zero waste aligns with our sustainability goals," said Dr Mukesh Kumar, Group Head-Technology, Sesa Sterlite Limited.
About Sesa Sterlite Limited (Formerly known as Sesa Goa Limited)
Sesa Sterlite Limited (SSLT) is one of the world's largest diversified natural resources company, whose business primarily involves exploring and processing minerals and oil & gas. SSLT produces oil & gas, zinc, lead, silver, copper, iron ore, aluminium and commercial power and has a presence across India, South Africa, Namibia, Ireland, Australia, Liberia and Sri Lanka. Sustainability is at
the core of SSLT's strategy, with a strong focus on health, safety and environment and on enhancing
the lives of local communities.
SSLT is a subsidiary of Vedanta Resources Plc, a London-listed company. SSLT is listed on the Bombay Stock Exchange and the National Stock Exchange in India and has ADRs listed on the New York Stock Exchange.
For further information, please contact:
Group Communications Roma Balwani
President - Group Communications, Sustainability & CSR Tel: +912266461000
gc@vedanta.co.in
This press release contains "forward-looking statements" - that is, statements related to future, not past, events. In this context, forward-looking statements often address our expected future business and financial performance, and often contain words such as "expects," "anticipates," "intends," "plans," "believes," "seeks," "should" or "will." Forward-looking statements by their nature address
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matters that are, to different degrees, uncertain. For us, uncertainties arise from the behaviour of financial and metals markets including the London Metal Exchange, fluctuations in interest and or exchange rates and metal prices; from future integration of acquired businesses; and from numerous other matters of national, regional and global scale, including those of a political, economic, business, competitive or regulatory nature. These uncertainties may cause our actual future results to be materially different that those expressed in our forward-looking statements. We do not undertake
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