Mining Process
Bharat Aluminium Co. Ltd. (BALCO) has Captive Bauxite Mines. The method of mining is open cast semi-mechanized. Overburden, which is in the form of soil & laterite, is first excavated by a combination of shovel / excavator and dumper in order to expose ore-zone. Then the ore zone is drilled and blasted. The blasted ore is subject to sorting in order to upgrade the “Run of Grade” to “Plant Feed Grade” i.e. 46.7% oxide for Bodai Daldali and 47% for Mainpat. Sorting is carried out at the mine-face and the rejects associated in the ore zone are back-filled concurrently. The area is then leveled and afforested. The sorted ore is then trucked to the Korba complex for further processing.

Mines
Mainpat is the primary operative mine. It produced 565,301 tpa of Bauxite in 2005 -06.

Mainpat has approximately 5.3 million tonnes of reserves while Bodai-Daldali has approximately 6.3 million tonnes of Bauxite reserves.