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Aluminium producer company Vedanta Aluminium and policy think tank NITI Aayog are discussing identifying sustainable applications for red mud, which is a byproduct in the bauxite refining process for making aluminium, the company said on Thursday.
As per Vedanta Aluminium, the day-long session focused on the effective utilization of red mud through focused research, development, and commercialization efforts in other industries. As the testing phase of the collaborative project nears a successful conclusion, the session also saw discussions around the latest findings, scale-up plans, strategic roadmap, and commercial viability of the project. To advance India's self-reliance on rare earth oxides (REOs), NITI Aayog has identified several secondary resources for rare earth extraction. Vedanta Aluminium has been working with the government, academia, and industry to develop technological solutions for the comprehensive utilisation of red mud, including as a domestic resource for extracting scandium, the company added. The project participants have successfully developed an effective and economically viable technique to extract pig iron, alumina, titania, and rare earth oxides from a sample size of 10 kilograms. The company said that its focus is to commercially scale up the process and demonstrate its economic viability in larger quantities. Sharing his views on the initiative, John Slaven, CEO, of Vedanta Aluminium, said, "This initiative comes as a robust example of our efforts to identify circular economy avenues that contribute to responsible business practices within the mining, metals, and manufacturing sectors." Speaking on Vedanta's contribution to the success of the project, Dr. R. Saravanabhavan, Member, NITI Aayog, said, "Odisha accounts for about 50 per cent of bauxite reserves in India, hence, the development of red mud's effective handling, storage, usage, and management is necessary for the advancement of the aluminium industry. I commend Vedanta and all collaborating partners for their collective efforts in researching the comprehensive use of red mud to extract value from it." Aluminium is a recyclable, eco-friendly metal used in a number of sectors such as power, transportation, building, construction, packaging, and many more. The red mud is a highly promising source of scandium, a material more enriched than native bauxite. It is predicted that the demand growth of aluminum in India in the next few years is going to be substantially higher due to projected high GDP growth in India in the coming years, as per the Ministry of Mines. Further, the Ministry believes that several initiatives, such as 100 per cent rural electrification, housing for All, Smart Cities, a National infrastructure pipeline of Rs 100 lakh Crore, renewable energy, and electric vehicle incentives will boost the consumption of the metal in the country in the coming time. (ANI)
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