Economic Times reported that the consortium members, which include state owned PSUs such as Hindustan Copper, NALCO, SAIL and MECL, will meet after June 5 to decide on the equity shareholding and also take a call on whether to include private sector companies as part of the consortium.

Mr Shakeel Ahmed CMD of HCL said that "We have sent four teams to Afghanistan for site visit. We will study their reports and do a due diligence on the reserves. The last of these teams will return on June 5. We are scheduled to meet after that to take a call on equity shareholding among the consortium members. We are getting feelers from other private players interested in joining the consortium and will decided on whether to invite them as part of the team.”

Mr Ahmed said the Indian consortium's move would be on the lines of Afisco, the consortium of PSUs and private players, which successfully beat global competition to bag the rights for exploring nearly a billion tonnes of iron ore reserves in remote Hajigak.

Asked if they would seek sovereign guarantees for mining the copper and gold reserves in Afghanistan, Mr Ahmed said that "We will follow on the lines of Afisco."

He added "The only concern is security and infrastructure. India and Afghanistan share historical ties and both the government and the locals have been very friendly when our team visited the country. We are keen to explore the reserves in that country since it is in our interest to secure our mineral need.”

Sterlite Industries, Monnet Ispat & Energy and Jindal Steel & Power are among the private players who have also been shortlisted by the Afghan mines ministry. Incidentally, the shortlisted candidates also include big investors from the Emirates, Canada and Australia.

Source - Economic Times

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