India's Hindustan Copper Seeks Collaborator to Covert Waste into Micronutrients

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Researched by Industrial Info Resources (Sugar Land, Texas)--Hindustan Copper Limited (BSE:513599) (HCL) (Kolkata), India's only integrated copper producer, is scouting for a global partner for the technological development, processing, refining and marketing of copper-ore tailings (COT) for use as micronutrients in agriculture.

Company officials said that HCL was considering several options for such a partnership, including a joint venture in which the global partner will provide technology for processing and refining COT to have an ideal, cost-effective, safe and soluble fertilizer product for agriculture. HCL also was open to the option of the collaborator undertaking marketing of COT from its smelters, after outright purchase on the basis of a long-term purchase agreement, officials said.

HCL has four operating units: the Khetri Copper Complex (KCC), in Khetri Nagar, in central Indian state of Rajasthan; the Indian Copper Complex (ICC), in Ghatsila, Jharkhand; the Malanjkhand Copper Project (MCP), in Madhya Pradesh; and the Taloja Copper Project, in Maharasthra. HCL currently produces 3 million tons of copper ore per year from its open pit mine at MCP and its underground mine at KCC.

The copper ore, which has about 1% copper content, is put through a beneficiation process to produce copper concentrate, which has about 25% copper content at MCP and about 17% copper content at KCC. In the beneficiation process, only 5% to 7% of the total ore processed is converted into concentrate, and the balance 93% to 95% of the ore quantity is discarded as tailings. This COT is then stored in "tailing dams" at KCC and MCP. HCL officials said that over a period of time, a huge quantity of COT had accumulated at its project sites, and therefore the company has proposed a project to covert this waste product into agriculture micronutrients that will be a new revenue stream and lead to an efficient waste disposal system. It is estimated that a total of 10 million tons of COT is lying piled up at HCL's smelters at KCC and MCP.

Officials said that the Department of Soil Science & Agriculture at the University of Agricultural Science (Dharwad, Karnataka) has undertaken a research project in collaboration with Hutti Copper and Gold Mine Company Limited (Chitradurga, Karnataka) and Indian Copper Development Centre (Kolkata). This research indicated that COT can be safely used in agriculture as a source of micronutrients, particularly in black alkaline soils. In fact, COT from the Hutti Copper/Gold Mines Company was being regularly marketed, and a similar model was to be implemented by HCL, officials said.

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