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India will require roughly 500,000 tonnes of additional refined copper capacity every five years to keep pace with rising demand of the metal, International Copper Association India (ICA India) Managing Director Mayur Karmarkar said on Sunday. Speaking on the outlook for the ongoing financial year, Karmarkar said copper demand is likely to track overall GDP growth and the association is anticipating at least around 9 per cent growth over 2026. On the supply side, restarting secondary smelter of Hindustan Copper and new secondary smelter of Hindalco will add capacity of 100,000 tonnes but that is small against the total demand of about 1.8 million tonnes, Karmarkar said. "It will help a bit, but the scale is relatively small," he added. Karmarkar said domestic cathode availability will further improve as smelter-refinery capacities expand. "Hindalco is putting up an expansion plant, and Kutch Copper's capacity is also coming on stream. These projects will make more cathode available
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 ...
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,
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
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