The Hindu Business Line : More outlays needed on exploration for copper ore

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Brisbane Feb. 19 India has the capacity to smelt 900,000 tonnes of copper; it produces about 500,000 tonnes but mines within the country supply only enough ore concentrate to produce about 33,000 tonnes of metal.

The rest of the ore is imported by the major producers Sterlite and Hindalco, with mining interests overseas bringing the ore concentrate home for smelting.

Does the country have enough ore? Yes, says the Chairman and Managing Director of Hindustan Copper, the public sector company that has the only functional copper mines in the country and yet brings up less than a tenth of the ore concentrate needed.

"The deposits are just lying there," he tells Business Line on the sidelines of a meeting between a delegation from the Confederation of Indian Industry and representatives of Queensland's government and mining industry representatives.

If investment does come in, production can be increased, he says.

Total deposits identified are enough to produce 11 million tonnes of metal, and another 14 million tonnes are likely to be available provided a detailed exploration is done, he says.

Exploration for minerals is done by the Geological Survey of India and Mineral Exploration Corporation Ltd. Both are Government-owned. Both have limited funds.

"We are spending just $5 million in exploration, and mostly on coal, whereas other countries spend in hundreds of millions of dollars a year in exploration. Spending on surveys is a gamble; when the tax payers' money is limited, it cannot obviously be spent on speculation. Foreign companies are flush with funds."

Hindustan Copper has lease rights over the lands that hold the country's known reserves of copper ore.

"It is only a question of developing this," says the Managing Director.