KOLKATA (miningweekly.com) – India’s sole State-owned integrated copper producer Hindustan Copper Limited (HCL) has lowered its capital expenditure (capex) for the current financial year, owing to delayed clearances for reopening and expanding three of its captive copper mines.
Data sourced from the government showed that HCL had planned capex of $100-million for 2016/17, when it developed its strategic plan last year. However, two months into the new financial year, HCL had reduced its capex to $59-million as the expansion of the three mines was not expected to gain momentum during the current year.
In the previous financial year, HCL had also failed to deploy its entire planned funds for capex. Government data showed that HCL only spent $43-million during 2015/16, compared with planned capex of $70-million.
A Parliamentary Committee, designated to oversee government-owned companies, at a recent meeting criticised HCL, saying the company should review the practice followed in framing yearly capex targets.
The delays in securing the mandatory approvals, including environmental approval, to reopen the Rakha, Chapri Siddeswar and Kendadhi mines, in Jharkhand, would force HCL to miss its target for 2017/18 to ramp up its copper production to 12.41-million tons from current levels of around 3.66-million tons.
The three mines were forced to close down almost a decade and half ago in the face of depressed global copper price and HCL's high production costs.