Hindustan Copper Ltd (HCL) has obtained approval from its board of directors to form a joint venture (JV) company with Mineral Exploration Corp. Ltd (MECL) and Nalco Ltd.
The JV would help in the formation of a joint working group, which would be empowered to deal with government-to-government (G2G) deals relating to sourcing of rare minerals. “We have got the board nod to form a JV with MECL and Nalco. This JV will help the three of us in sourcing rare minerals from other countries by virtue of the formation of an empowered joint working group,” chairman and managing director (CMD) of HCL, Santosh Sharma told reporters.
The JV would take shape of a new company, namely Khanij Bidesh India Ltd (KABIL), which will have an authorised and paid-up capital of Rs100 crore and Rs30 crore, respectively, he said. Sharma said this was a part of HCL’s diversification process for sourcing rare minerals like titanium.
The company said it has also decided to extract precious metals like gold and silver from waste at its Malaj Khand copper complex. It has a waste processing capacity of 10,000 tonne per day that would help in extracting 1.1kg of gold and 11kg of silver. The copper major has invested Rs200 crore towards this, Sharma said, adding, the project would be commissioned by early next fiscal.
HCL’s board has also approved increase in borrowing limits from consortium or banks up to an aggregate of Rs650 crore. In the quarter ended September, total income of HCL jumped 152% on-year to Rs540 crore, while net profit surged 322% to Rs28.55 crore. The sharp rise in the bottom line was due to firming of copper prices on the London Metal Exchange, he said.
Source: Mint