Copper production rose to 6.92 lakh tonnes in 2012-13: Mines minister Dinsha Patel

NEW DELHI: Copper production rose by 1.1 per cent to 6.92 lakh tonnes in 2012-13 fiscal, mines minister Dinsha Patel said in Rajya Sabha on Monday.

The country, which imports copper ore concentrates to meet the domestic demand, had produced 6.84 lakh tonnes copper a year ago.

Copper production was at 6.64 lakh tonnes copper in 2010-11, the minister said.

"The refining capacity is more than domestic consumption requirements," Patel said.

To a question on whether the Government had come across any case of holding stocks of copper for speculative sale, the minister answered in the negative.

Answering a question on whether Geological Survey of India (GSI) was facing manpower shortage, Patel said it now has 12,369 employees.

"GSI is taking action to fill up the vacancies in a phased manner which is to be completed by 2018," he said.