Anil Agarwal

Chairman, Vedanta Resources

Date of Birth: 24/01/1954
Place of Birth: Patna, Bihar State

Chinese investment may attract the ire of the Zambian opposition (see Briefing), but it is an Indian company that operates Zambia’s largest copper mine. Anil Agarwal’s Vedanta Resources is hiding, as it were, in plain sight. Not that everything goes smoothly for the company: as owner of 79.4% of Konkola Copper Mines, Vedanta has ploughed US$1.5 billion into the enterprise since 2004. Fluctuating prices caused the closure of Vedanta’s Nkana copper smelter in 2008 along with the lay-off of workers in 2009, and its tenure as KCM owner has been marred by disputes with unions.

Controversy also dogs Vedanta’s operations elsewhere. Its plan to open a mine on Niyamgiri Mountain in Orissa, eastern India, is opposed by environmental and human rights activists because of the displacement of people it will cause. The area holds the world’s fourth-largest bauxite deposits, which are crucial for aluminium production.

Agarwal was born in 1954 in Patna, Bihar State. He left school at 15 to start a business in Mumbai’s scrap metal trade, which led to the founding of copper manufacturer Sterlite Industries in 1976. Vedanta Resources was established in 1986 as a cable producer, just in time to capitalise on India’s telephony boom. Agarwal’s brother Navin is Deputy Executive Chairman at Vedanta.

Vedanta has operations in India, Zambia and Australia. Its core operations are in copper and zinc mining and aluminium production, with recent forays into energy. The company boasted $6.6 bn. in revenue in the 2009 financial year. Anil Agarwal talks about a future in philanthropy. He has promised Orissa State a university and has spoken of his intentions to give away three-quarters of his wealth, but such pledges are unlikely to soothe Vedanta’s critics.