Hindalco, JSW Steel in Race for Copper Mines in Jharkhand

Aditya Birla Group firm Hindalco Industries and Sajjan Jindal-led JSW Steel are in the race for two copper mines in Jharkhand which will be put on sale this month, sources said. Both mines have a combined capacity of three million tonne per annum.

Hindalco Industries and JSW Steel will be vying for state-owned Hindustan Copper Ltd's two copper mines in Jharkhand, sources said. The auction of both the mines is likely to take place in the month of October.

While one of these blocks is virgin, the other one is closed for the past 20 years. Hindustan Copper had earlier invited applications for appointment of mine developer-cum-operator (MDO) for re-opening and expansion of Rakha Copper Mine and development and operations of underground Mine at Chapri.

Hindustan Copper had said in its recent report that Rakha Mining Lease expired in 2021 and extension of mining lease period is under progress with the Jharkhand government. Further, the application for grant of stage one forest clearance over remaining forest area within mining lease has been accepted by Project Screening Committee.

The site inspection by various authorities of State Forest department has been completed. Hindustan Copper is implementing expansion projects to increase mine production capacity to 12.2 million tonne per annum, its CMD Ghanshyam Sharma had recently said.

The move will boost domestic production of copper and reduce dependence on imports. The company achieved ore production of 3.78 million tonne in FY24 against 3.35 MT in FY23, registering a rise of 13 per cent.

The ongoing capacity expansion project i.e. development of underground mine below the existing open cast mine at Malanjkhand Copper Project (MCP) will augment the ore production capacity from 2.5 MTPA to 5 MTPA.

The ore production from the open cast mine has now been exhausted and the underground mine is operating below the existing open cast mine leaving some barrier pillars.

Hindustan Copper, under the administrative control of the mines ministry, is engaged in mining of copper ore and owns all the operating mining leases of copper ore and also the only integrated producer of refined copper (vertically integrated company).