How big is Porbandar's mixed minerals cluster, and what does bauxite cost per tonne of product?

The Energy and Resources Institute (TERI) counts about 280 Micro, Small and Medium Enterprise (MSME) units in Porbandar, about 60 of them minerals processors making 239,600 tonnes a year. High grade bauxite at rupees (Rs) 2500 a tonne, with 8.5 t giving about 6.5 t calcined, puts bauxite at about Rs 3,270 per tonne of calcined product.

The cluster as printed

• An estimated 280 micro, small and medium units, the majority ice manufacturing and mixed minerals processing.
• About 60 mixed mineral processing units: 25 chalk powder (90,000 t a year), 15 emery abrasive (21,600 t) and 20 calcined bauxite (128,000 t). Total 239,600 t a year; the three lines add up.
• Two of the large units provide employment to more than 2000 people.
• Annual turnover of the cluster is estimated at around Rs 300 crores.
• The live Porbandar calcined bauxite page has the unit counts and yields in full; this page is for the cost angle.

Raw material prices (the profile gives no year)

• Chalk lumps: Rs 2000 to 2500 a tonne, from mining at Aadinayana, 10 km from Porbandar.
• Low grade bauxite (alumina under 50%): Rs 1500 a tonne, used for emery abrasives.
• High grade bauxite (alumina close to 58%): Rs 2500 a tonne, used for calcined bauxite.

Bauxite per tonne of calcined product

The profile says about 25% of the weight of raw material is lost in the kiln, and gives an example: out of 8.5 tonnes of raw material, near about 6.5 tonnes of calcined bauxite forms, at 84 to 88% alumina. The example itself loses 2.0 of 8.5 tonnes, 23.5%.

My arithmetic, taking the 8.5 tonnes as bauxite alone: 8.5 / 6.5 = 1.31 tonnes of high grade bauxite for each tonne of calcined product. At Rs 2500 that is about Rs 3,270 of bauxite a tonne, before coke, power and labour. For the cluster's 128,000 tonnes, about 167,400 tonnes of bauxite and about Rs 41.8 crores, roughly 14% of the Rs 300 crores turnover. That Rs 300 crores covers the whole cluster, ice makers and large non mineral units included, so the 14% is a rough scale only. Prices carry no year.

What it means for a footprint

Per tonne of product, the kiln fires 1.31 tonnes of bauxite, so figure fuel per tonne of calcined output, not per tonne of bauxite fed. Count rejects in the coke and power, but only good product in the tonnes.

Per tonne and per cluster (estimate)

• Raw bauxite per tonne: 8.5 / 6.5 = 1.308 t
• Cost per tonne of product: 1.308 x Rs 2,500 = Rs 3,269
• Cluster bauxite: 128,000 x 1.308 = 167,385 t x Rs 2,500 = Rs 418 million, about Rs 41.8 crore
• Share of turnover: 41.8 / 300 = 14%

Prices, yields and counts are the profile's own, undated. Assumes the 8.5 tonnes is bauxite only.

What Senseible does here

Senseible reads fuel invoices and electricity bills into monthly records, so your power bills carry the grid factor of each bill's year. Bauxite and coke invoices stay your own papers to divide by good tonnes. It is not a third-party verifier and does not issue credits.

• Porbandar calcined bauxite and coke CO2
• Porbandar block ice plants electricity
• Green loan readiness check

Sources: TERI, Cluster profile 2016: Porbandar mixed minerals processing industries (SAMEEEKSHA)

Last reviewed 2026-11-05. Prices carry no year in the profile. Check current bauxite and coke prices before using the rupee lines.