The Supreme Court will deliver its verdict on the validity of centre's withdrawal of environment clearance for bauxite mining in Odisha on Thursday.
State owned Odisha Mining Corporation, which has a joint venture with Sterlite had challenged the environment ministry's withdrawal of environmental clearance.
In 2008, the apex court had given permission to Sterlite India Company of the Vedanta Group for diversion of 660 hectares of forest land of Niyamgiri Hills.
On August 24, 2010, the environment ministry withdrew the Stage II forest clearance for mining bauxite and temporarily withdrew the Stage I clearance, after the NC Saxena panel recommended that mining in Niyamgiri would severely affect the ecology as well as the primitive tribal group of Dongria Kondhs, living on the mountain slopes.
It also withdrew the earlier permission given to Vedanta for expansion of its 1 MT alumina refinery to 6 MT at Lanjigarh block of Kalahandi.
Vedanta shut down its Lanjigarh Alumina Refinery on December 5, citing shortage of bauxite. As per the memorandum of understanding with Vedanta, Odisha Mining Corporation was supposed to supply up to 150 million tonne of bauxite for Lanjigarh Refinery from Niyamgiri.
During the last five years of curtailed operation, the company claimed it had lost about Rs 2,500 crore on an investment of Rs 5,000 crore in the Lanjigarh plant.
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