Copper

Uranium Corporation of India Ltd (UCIL), a public sector company under the Department of Atomic Energy (DAE), will set up a recovery plant in Jharkhand to extract uranium from tailings of state-owned Hindustan Copper, a top official said on Sunday. The move would help in augmenting domestic supplies of the strategic mineral used in nuclear power and defence applications. In an interview with PTI, Hindustan Copper Chairman and Managing Director (CMD) Sanjiv Kumar Singh said that the copper PSU has reached an understanding with UCIL under which tailings will be handed over to the Uranium Corporation of India to extract uranium. Copper tailings are finely ground waste rock and water that remain after copper minerals are extracted from mined ores. Singh said, "UCIL was concerned with our proposal and technically agreed because there is a presence of uranium in small quantities in our tailings, which they can extract". UCIL will process the tailings and, after extracting uranium, retur

The Netherlands on Saturday handed back 11th-century Chola dynasty copper plates to India, in an event attended by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, signifying the strengthening of ties between the two countries. PM Modi arrived in the Netherlands on Friday - after a brief stopover in the UAE - on the second leg of his five-nation tour that also includes Sweden, Norway and Italy. India has been pursuing the return of the Anaimangalam Copper Plates, known in the Netherlands as the Leiden Plates, since 2012. The 21 copper plates are considered the most significant surviving records of the Chola dynasty and are among the important artefacts of Tamil heritage held anywhere outside India. The copper plates, belonging to the times of Rajaraja Chola I, weigh approximately 30 kilograms and are bound together by a bronze ring bearing the royal seal of the Chola dynasty. The plates are divided into two sections: one has texts in Sanskrit, the other in Tamil. Rajaraja Chola I was a Hindu empero

State-owned Hindustan Copper Ltd on Friday reported a 137.3 per cent surge in net profit to Rs 444.27 crore for the quarter ended March 31, 2026, on the back of higher revenue. The company had posted a consolidated net profit of Rs 187.18 crore in the year-ago period. The consolidated revenue from operations during the fourth quarter rose by 58 per cent to Rs 1,156 crore, compared to Rs 731.40 crore a year ago, Hindustan Copper said in a regulatory filing. The board recommended a final dividend of Rs 1.86 per share for FY2025-26, subject to the requisite approvals, the company said. The board also approved a proposal for raising up to Rs 500 crore via non-convertible debentures (NCDs) on a private placement basis. The board of directors also gave the nod to raise funds via Qualified institutional Placement (QIP) of up to 9.69 crore equity shares for funding the capital expenditure and expansion plans approved by the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA), the filing ...

Units warn of permanent shutdowns and curtailed operations as West Asia conflict disrupts scrap supply, raises costs, and strains liquidity; government relief sought

State-owned Hindustan Copper Ltd is pursuing Navratna status, with its Chairman and Managing Director Sanjiv Kumar Singh emphasising the milestone as a testament to the company's improved operations, organisational excellence and strategic growth. This comes amid Hindustan Copper's aggressive expansion plans in mining operations. It operates the country's sole vertically integrated refined copper facility, handling exploration, mining, beneficiation, smelting, refining, and casting operations. "We also remain steadfast in our pursuit of attaining Navratna status, which reflects not only our enhanced operational performance but also organisational excellence and strategic maturity. This aspiration continues to motivate us to raise our standards and push the boundaries of performance," the company's Chairman and Managing Director (CMD) said in a recent letter to his employees. Navratna status, granted by the Department of Public Enterprises to top-performing public sector enterprises,

Barrick's 12-month review of Reko Diq shows how security risks, regional conflict and cost uncertainty can stall even a flagship mine Pakistan sees as vital for exports and investment

Hindustan Copper Ltd (HCL) has said it is well-positioned to make a strategic entry into the critical minerals sector, leveraging its expertise in hard rock mining and mineral beneficiation. The move will contribute significantly to the nation's technological and economic priorities. "Leveraging its proven expertise in hard rock mining and mineral beneficiation, HCL is well positioned to make a strategic entry into the critical minerals sector and contribute significantly to the nation's technological and economic priorities," Hindustan Copper has said in a statement. The PSU is aggressively expanding into the exploration and development of critical minerals to support the country's green energy transition and reduce dependence on imports. HCL has signed multiple agreements with PSUs like Oil India Ltd and Coal India Ltd to explore, mine, and develop critical minerals (copper, nickel, cobalt) and rare earth elements. The company has reported more than a two-fold jump in consolidat

Copper has soared to record highs above $13,000 a metric ton in London, driven by a slew of mine outages and moves to stockpile the metal in the US ahead of possible Trump administration tariffs

Copper prices remain firm in 2025 amid supply disruptions, tariff risks and low inventories. With global demand rising Hindustan Copper is positioned to benefit from the structural upcycle

Cheap imports of copper under multiple free trade agreements are "severely damaging" Indian manufacturing, industry body IPCPA said and sought immediate government interventions in the form of a safeguard duty and quantitative restrictions on inbound shipments from overseas. According to the Indian Primary Copper Producers Association (IPCPA), a surge in zero-duty copper imports is eroding the country's domestic smelting and downstream manufacturing sector, even as over Rs 20,000 crore has been invested in recent years to achieve self-sufficiency. "Zero-duty imports from FTA partners are severely damaging Indian smelting and refining," the ICPA said, and demanded that a 3 per cent safeguard duty should be imposed on copper imports of certain categories, irrespective of the FTA (free trade agreement) status. It also raised concerns about the India-UAE Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (CEPA), under which customs duties on copper wire rods have fallen to one per cent in FY2

India, the world's second-biggest importer of refined copper, may have to source 91 per cent-97 per cent of its copper concentrate requirements from overseas by 2047

Kutch Copper Ltd., which began processing metal in June after multiple delays, has brought in less than a 10th of the raw material required, according to customs data

Initial capital expenditure for the project is estimated at $1.10 billion, with KCL granted first rights to participate in direct equity or project-level investments during the term of the agreement

Situated in Pakistan's Balochistan province, the Reko Diq copper-gold mine is poised to become one of the world's five largest copper reserves, drawing Japanese financing and industrial support

India's copper demand grew by 9.3 per cent to 1,878 kilo tonnes (KT) in FY25 due to robust economic progress and increasing adoption of the metal across critical sectors, a report released on Wednesday said. The International Copper Association India (ICA India) released its copper demand report for FY2025. The country's copper demand was 1,718 kilo tonne in FY24. India's continued emphasis on large-scale infrastructure projects, building construction, clean energy transition and emerging technologies has accelerated demand for key industrial materials, with copper emerging as a critical enabler across these sectors, the report said. The building construction and infrastructure segments remained primary growth drivers registering 11 per cent and 17 per cent year-on-year growth respectively. The renewable energy sector achieved one of the highest annual capacity additions in FY2025, while the consumer durables sector saw a 19 per cent increase, driven by strong sales of air ...

Changing regional policies, infrastructure cycles and geopolitical shifts are likely to mean producers, consumers, traders and investors need to adapt to a market that has many different drivers

The Indian Primary Copper Producers Association (IPCPA) has raised concerns over rising copper rod imports from the UAE under the India-UAE Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (CEPA), warning that the trend threatens domestic investments in copper refining. Since 1996, Indian producers - Hindustan Copper Ltd, Hindalco Industries, Vedanta Ltd, and Kutch Copper Ltd (Adani Group) - have built a domestic refined copper capacity of 1.25 million tonne, against a projected demand of 0.85 million tonne for FY25. The industry had plans to expand capacity further in the coming decade. However, IPCPA in a letter to the commerce ministry said CEPA poses "a significant obstacle" to these plans, as the UAE, despite having no copper mining, smelting, or refining infrastructure, is exporting copper rods to India with minimal value addition. The UAE firms merely convert imported copper cathodes into rods, a process that alters the tariff classification but adds negligible real value, ...

India on Tuesday sought consultations with the US under the World Trade Organisation's (WTO) safeguard agreement over 50 per cent tariffs imposed on certain copper products by America. This move comes after India reserved the right to impose retaliatory duties on select US products in response to American tariffs on steel and aluminium; and auto components. On July 30 this year, the US adopted a measure in the form of 50 per cent tariff on all imports of certain copper products. The measure applies from August 1 this year and for an unlimited duration. "India considers that the measure, although claimed to be taken for security interests, are, in essence, a safeguard measure," a WTO communication said. The communication is being circulated at the request of the delegation of India. It said that the US failed to notify the WTO Committee on Safeguards on taking a decision to apply the safeguard measure. "Accordingly, as an affected member with significant export interest to the Un

The report by the Centre for Social and Economic Progress warns that India's copper imports could rise sharply unless mining, processing, and recycling capacity is scaled up

Japan's Mitsubishi to buy into Arizona's Copper World project for $600m, weeks after the US imposed steep tariffs on semi-finished copper products