Dilip Buildcon leading bidder for NALCO’s Pottangi mines & IPCC system
India’s Dilip Buildcon Ltd has emerged as L-1 bidder, ie lowest bidder for an MDO contract for development and operation of National Aluminium Company Ltd (NALCO)’s Pottangi Bauxite Mines along with an Overland Conveyor Corridor (OLCC) and allied facilities. The contract covers 25 years of works.
An L-1 bidder is generally considered the front runner and effectively winning bidder for a contract but they still have to meet all the technical specifications and other eligibility criteria outlined in the tender documents.Â
NALCO is a state owned company – it signed the 6.97 km2 Pottangi mining lease in 2024 with the State Government of Odisha. The bauxite mines have estimated reserves of 112 Mt and a mine life of up to 32 years – the OLCC refers to an 18.3 km 1,000 t/h conveyor to transport 3.5 Mt/y of bauxite to NALCO’s refinery at Damanjodi. NALCO is setting up a 5th Stream in this refinery as a part of the future expansion programme for additional production of 1 Mt/y of alumina. Bauxite ore will be transported from the Pottangi mines to Damanjodi Refinery by road till the commissioning of the overland conveying system is completed.
The first three years will involve EPC work (OLCC, road, water intake facility & mining and transportation) for 7 Mt of material moved and is valued at INR 1,750 crore which is over US$196 million. The balance of mining for the remaining 22 years involves moving 77 Mt and is valued at INR 3,250 crore which is about US$365 million. The bauxite is to be excavated by trench mining method comprising of a number of parallel trenches with staggered faces. The mining operations have been planned to be started from the South and Central blocks, which contain bauxite reserves almost in equal proportions.
The MDO must provide and deploy an adequate number of heavy earth moving machinery (HEMM) and other mining equipment at least as per the approved mining plan at its own cost. This includes mining and crushing bauxite, transporting it to designated locations after weighing, and disposing of
overburden, incidental waste, and other materials to specified locations according to the mining plan.
A pre-feasibility report from Ramky Enviro Services Private Ltd in Hyderabad describes fully mechanised opencast mining will deploy ripper dozers, blasthole drills, front-end loaders, back-hoe excavators, dumper trucks and a semi mobile double roll crusher or sizer with conveyor. The overburden consists of top soil of about 0.5 m depth which is proposed to be removed separately by scraping with dozers and the heaps so formed will be lifted by a loader-dumper combination. This material initially for three years of this plan period will be stacked separately, temporarily on the ground earmarked for top soil and will be used for backfilling of the mined-out areas of the South block for growing trees and vegetation.
The mined bauxite will be transported via the dumper trucks to the 1,000 t/h semi mobile crusher unit for crushing to -150 mm size. The PFS also specifies a potential equipment fleet of eight Komatsu D475A and two WD600-3 dozers plus ten WA700 wheel loaders along with 25 BEML BH50M 55 t class rigid dump trucks and five Komatsu 210M 50 t trucks. Six Epiroc IDM30 drills were also cited, plus four Hitachi EX1200V backhoe excavators.
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