New Delhi: National Aluminium Company Limited (NALCO) has successfully developed a Bauxite Certified Reference Material (CRM) naming as BARC B1201 in joint collaboration with Bhabha Atomic Research Centre (BARC).

This is the first of its kind CRM in India and 5th in the World.

BARC B1201 was formally launched by M.P. Mishra, Director (P&;T), NALCO and Dr A. C. Sahayam, Head of Division, National Centre for Compositional Characterisation of Materials in the presence of senior officials of NALCO and BARC at NALCO Research & Technology Centre, Bhubaneswar on 24th March 2023.

NALCO is a Navratna CPSE under the Ministry of Mines and the country’s leading manufacturer and exporter of alumina and aluminium.

NALCO CMD  Sridhar Patra said, “The collaboration with BARC has resulted in developing this unique product required by our research laboratories.”

He added that this achievement will inspire the researchers to further indigenous innovation and contribute towards enhancing India's self-reliance.

It is noteworthy that this new product will act as an import substitution for use by Industries, Research Laboratories and Academic Institutions as a calibration standard in evaluating analytical methods, the performance of Instruments, and data quality control in routine analysis of bauxite.