KOLKATA (miningweekly.com) - India’s Hindustan Copper Limited (HCL), the country’s sole integrated copper producer, has earmarked a capital expenditure of $550.37-million to treble production.

Some $110-million would be spent during the current fiscal year.

The investments would be riding on eight new mining projects which would ramp-up the copper miner’s ore production to 12.4-million tonnes over the next five years, from current levels of about four-million tonnes a year, HCL chairperson K D Diwan said.

HCL had been granted a reconnaissance permit (RP) by the government of the western Indian province of Maharasthra across 580.73 km² with the lease deed executed in March 2013. The Directorate of Mines and Geology had recommended RPs for the company in Rajasthan in central India, Diwan said.

He said that environmental clearances had been received for an underground copper mine at Malanjkhand, in the Madhya Pradesh province, and the copper miner was awaiting clearances from the Standing Committee of National Wildlife board before starting work on the project.

Dwelling on targets for the current year, Diwan said that HCL aimed to produce 3.9-million tonnes of copper ore, 35 200 t of copper concentrate and 33 792 t of copper cathodes by March 2014.

During 2012/13, the company had produced 3.65-million tonnes of ore, 29 285 t of concentrate, 24 210 t of cathode and 20 368 t of wire rods.

HCL was also seeking a mineral processing and technology solution provider for recovery of minerals and materials from copper tails at its Khetri copper complex in Rajasthan, where the company currently produces one-million tonnes a year of copper ore with average copper content of 0.9%.

Following beneficiation, only 5% to 7% of ore was converted to concentrates while between 93% and  95% of ore was dumped in tailing dams. Over a period of time, around 45-million tonnes of tailings in the form of dense slurry had accumulated at HCL's Khetri complex, which the company aimed to monetize through use of appropriate technology.