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Raipur, Jun 15: The first meeting of Board of Directors of Chhattisgarh Copper Limited (CCL) was held on June 15 at Hotel Marriot Court Yard, Raipur. Hindustan Copper Limited, a Mini Ratna-I company under the administrative control of Ministry of Mines, Govt of India has signed a Joint Venture Agreement with Chhattisgarh Mineral Development Corp. Ltd., PSE of State Government of Chhattisgarh on August 30, 2018. In the JV Company the equity share holding of HCL is 74% and CMDC is 26%.
The Joint Venture Company formed will undertake Exploration and Mining of Copper ore in Chhattisgarh State, said Santosh Sharma, Chairman, Chhattisgarh Copper Ltd (CCL) and Hindustan Copper Ltd while speaking to the scribes here. He said that as per Geological Survey of India report, Copper Ore is available in Rajnandgaon, Khairagarh and Bastar in the state. In first phase we will explore the availability of copper ore at Bodal village, Rajnandgaon for which we will take necessary approval from Ministry of Mines, Government of India and Ministry of Mines, Chhattisgarh Government.
The area reservation zone will be finalised by one month and copper exploration work will start by August 25, said the Chairman. It is notable that Hindustan Copper Ltd has been recognised as exploration agency recently. He said that as village Bodal is near to our Malajkhand Copper Project, so there is no need to create extra infrastructure for beneficiation of Copper Ore. At present our target is to explore 25 sq.km area in villlage Bodal. We will explore the area where there is potential at village Bodal, the exploration will further pinpointed in that area.
The exploration will be done in two years time. We expect that 25 million tonne of copper ore to be explored from village Bodel, said Mr Shankar. With this, HCL has extended footprint of its operation in the country’s sixth state and operations in Chhattisgarh will commence soon. HCL’s mines and plants are spread across five operating units, one each in Rajasthan, MP, Jharkhand, Maharashtra and Gujarat.
He said that HCL having 50 years of expertise in the field of exploration and production of Copper ore together with refining, smelting, and production of copper cathode and other saleable products and the infrastructure and expertise of CMDC in commerce and marketing of mineral resources can give great result in the area of exploration of Copper in the state by working jointly. This will also strengthen the raw material security for the nation, an important responsibility entrusted to HCL by Govt. India. Also, CMDC Ltd is engaged in Mining of major minerals since inception of the State.
With this initiative, HCL will extend its operations footprint in the State of Chhattisgarh also. The registered office of Joint Venture Company of Hindustan Copper Limited and Chhattisgarh Mineral Development Corporation, namely `Chhattisgarh Copper Limited’ has been inaugurated by Dr.V.K.Saraswat, Member of NITI Aayog and Chancellor JNU, New Delhi in the presence of K.D.Diwan, CMD/HCL and senior officers of CG Govt. on July 28 at Bhilai, Sector-5. The company has 3 directors, namely: Santosh Sharma, Ms. Alarmel Mangai Deekaram- IAS -Director – CG Govt. and ON Tiwari.
