Livemint reported that with 20 applications for new mining leases within India stuck in bureaucratic delays, state owned Hindustan Copper Limited is eyeing mines abroad to drive its expansion. The company wants to begin with bidding for copper deposits in Afghanistan and may team up with National Aluminum Company Limited with which it has an agreement to scout for mining assets jointly.

Mr Shakeel Ahmed CMD of Hindustan Copper said that “We are trying to get the details of Afghanistan’s copper deposits that will be put up for bidding. If they call for expressions of interest, we will definitely be interested in taking part in it. We have the skill in mining and Nalco is cash rich.”

Mr Ahmed said that Hindustan Copper, which is on the government’s list for disinvestment has 20 leases for prospecting and mining in India. But these are expected to take an indefinite time to materialize requiring the need to find other means to grow.

In 2008, Hindustan Copper shut its 31,000 tonne smelter in Rajasthan as it turned economically unviable and the firm decided to focus on mining copper ore. The company produced around 3.6 million tonnes of copper ore in 2010 to 2011. It uses some of this in its 19,000 tonne smelter in Jharkhand. Surplus ore is outsourced to Hindalco Industries Ltd and Sterlite Industries India Limited which convert it into copper for HCL to sell in the market. The company’s copper mines are in Jharkhand, Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh and the only way it can boost production is to make them more efficient.

Mr Ahmed said that “All applications for leases are in different process of decision making. There is no new mine that will be commissioned. By de bottlenecking our existing mines, we will try to improve production by 8% to 10%. Hindustan Copper is targeting output of 35,000 tonnes of copper metal this fiscal year up from 31,683 tonnes in 2010 to 2011. It has a production target of 3.7 MT of copper ore.

He said that in the international market, the market for copper is expected to pick up in a few months when demand from quake hit Japan strengthens as a part of reconstruction effort. That in turn will harden prices in the H2 of the year. But the average price for this full year should not be more than USD 9,200 per tonne from about USD 9,100 now.

(Sourced from www.livemint.com)