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Hindustan Copper Ltd (HCL) said on Thursday it will soon be able to extract gold, sliver and silica sand from copper ore tailings.
Santosh Sharma, Chairman and Managing Director, HCL, said an extraction plant will be commissioned in Madhya Pradesh this month to extract gold and silver from over 100 million tonne (mt) of copper ore tailings accumulated over a period. Tailings are the waste products generated during the recovery of minerals.
“The plant can extract 900 grams of gold, 11 kg of silver and approximately 5,000 tonnes of silica sand on a daily basis,” Sharma said, adding that this will be a new ‘secondary’ revenue measure for which raw material is available free of cost.
Yesterday, the Union Cabinet had given its nod for HCL to issue fresh shares to mop up funds for its expansion plans. The expansion plans involve expenditure of ₹5,500 crore, which will be met through internal accruals, equity and debt.
Sharma said the company will sell fresh shares through a Qualified Institutions Placement (QIP) in tranches as and when required. It also plans to raise debt such that an equity-debt ratio of 1:2 is maintained.
“We had been working with a target of expanding to 12.4 mt of copper ore production per annum. Now we have set our revised target at 20 mt,” Sharma said.
The expansion plan — to be implemented in Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Jharkhand — aims to enhance the production capacity by six times and create about 9,300 jobs. Once done, the company will be able to meet 30 per cent of the domestic demand for copper, against the current 5 per cent, Sharma said.
Cabinet nod
The Cabinet on Wednesday approved fresh issuance of 13.87 crore shares, comprising 15 per cent of the paid-up equity capital of HCL. On an expanded base, the government’s shareholding will come down to 66.13 per cent from 76.05 per cent.
This will serve two purposes — the company will be able to meet the minimum public shareholding of 25 per cent as prescribed by SEBI; it will also raise funds.
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