Vedanta Limited, one of the world's largest globally diversified natural resource majors, has today announced the creation of 'Eureka', which is a web-based platform that would nurture and incubate in-house innovation and technology to coincide with National Technology Day today. The platform will most probably go live on May 30, 2016.
A part of Vedanta's Innovation & Technology programme, this has been created for Rs 200 crore, and would be funding in-house opportunities for research and development, said a company statement.
To be headed by Ajay Dixit, Vedanta Limited’s CEO – Power, this is currently busy assessing a clutch of prospects in the field of mining, exploration and production. 'MAGMA', a new technology to convert of red mud into pig iron is also a part of the programme, which if successful, would be instrumental in protecting the mining area from being filled with red mud. In turn, this red mud would be used for more productive purposes.
"Innovation is crucial to business success and sustainability in the natural resources industry. From assessing mineral deposits, cost management, ensuring worker safety to addressing environmental imperatives, innovative practices hold the key to value creation," Dixit said.
Other than MAGMA, the viability of recovering zinc and lead from slag, generated during the smelting of zinc, is also being evaluated. The programme has received a submission from the Black Mountain Mining (BMM) project in South Africa, which has submitted a technology named 'REFLEX', facilitating the effective survey of mines.
Some of the other areas under evaluation include: developing processes to reduce water consumption, converting fly ash into geo-polymer cement, and cutting down on paper consumption.
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