Indian company National Aluminium Company (NALCO) is seeking permission to lease the Pottangi bauxite mine, which covers an area of 697 hectares in the Koraput district in Odisha (formerly Orissa).

The company already operates a bauxite mine in the Panchpatmali Hills of the Koraput district. This is a fully mechanized opencast mine, and has been in operation since November 1985. It serves feedstock to the Alumina Refinery at Damanjodi located on the foothills.

A decision on the application to lease Pottangi is expected to be made shortly by the expert appraisal committee of the Ministry of Environment, Forest & Climate Change (MoEFCC). The Pottangi bauxite mining lease is set to have an annual capacity of 3.5mtpa (million tonnes per annum). The 75mt bauxite reserves in the Pottangi mine would feed the planned newly expanded 1mt NALCO refinery at Damanjodi.