Vedanta Resources Inc, the Indian mining company controlled by billionaire Anil Agarwal, plans to invest $9.8 billion to become the world's fifth-largest aluminium producer.

The company said that it will raise annual smelting capacity to almost 2.6 million metric tonnes by 2012. It plans to build an aluminium smelter and power plant in India's Orissa state. Vedanta will also expand a refinery producing alumina, the raw material used to make the metal. Vedanta is betting that Asian demand for the lightweight metal used to make beverage cans and in airplanes will continue to grow.

Aluminium rose to a record in London in July and is up 9% since the start of the year. Global use will outpace production, Deutsche Bank AG and Citigroup Inc predict. "We view this announcement very positively," Merrill Lynch & Co analysts wrote in a note.

--by the times of India