Gautam Adani is set to compete with Kumar Mangalam Birla and Anil Agarwal in the aluminium business.

Group flagship Adani Enterprises has got the approval of the Odisha government to set up an alumina refinery and an iron ore project in the state.

The group will invest Rs 57,575 crore in the two projects that comprise a four million tonne integrated alumina refinery and 30 million tonne iron ore (value addition) project. The Adanis plan to employ 9,300 in the projects.

A late evening statement from the group said the refinery will be set up near potential bauxite reserves or operational mines.

The iron ore project will comprise a beneficiation plant producing iron ore concentrate, a slurry pipeline and a dewatering, or filtration, and pellet plant to produce filter cake and pellet.

The iron ore beneficiation plant will be located in Deojhar, in northern Odisha’s Keonjhar district. The pellet plant is to be set up in Dhamra, in the adjoining Bhadrak district.

The slurry pipeline will run along the roads between Deojhar and Dhamra.

“Metals are critical commodities in which our nation must be self-reliant, and these projects are aligned with our vision of Atmanirbhar Bharat,’’ said Gautam Adani, chairman of Adani Group.

After beginning as a commodity trader, Adani has rapidly diversified into ports, energy, airports, edible oil and more recently cement where it acquired the Indian operations of Holcim. The group is also betting big on green energy where it is taking on Mukesh Ambani whose Reliance Industries is pumping $10 billion over the next three years in this segment.

Hindalco Industries is the world’s largest aluminium firm by revenue with operations ranging from bauxite mining, alumina refining, aluminium smelting to downstream rolling, extrusions and recycling. It has an integrated complex at Renukoot, in Uttar Pradesh.

Vedanta is the largest aluminium producer in India with a capacity of over 2.3 million tonnes.

Fast pace

■ Alumina refinery and iron ore project planned in Odisha

■ Adani to invest Rs 57,575cr

■ Competition with Hindalco and Vedanta

■ Forays into copper and cement