Vedanta Aluminium, NITI Aayog hold stakeholder meeting on red mud utilization

New Delhi: Vedanta Aluminium in partnership with NITI Aayog held a high-level stakeholder meeting to identify sustainable applications for red mud, a key byproduct in the bauxite refining process for making aluminium, a release said on Thursday.

The experts congregated at the 8th joint meeting of the monitoring and steering committee for the project titled Technology Development for Holistic Utilization of Red Mud for Extraction of Metallic Values & Residue Utilization, the company said. Bauxite, the primary ore for aluminium, undergoes an intermediate refining stage known as the Bayer process to produce alumina, which is then subjected to electrolysis to produce aluminium.

The alumina refining stage generates bauxite residue, commonly known as red mud. The day-long session focused on the effective utilization of red mud through focused research, development, and commercialization efforts in other industries, it said. 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, it added.