Polish mining giant Kopex bags Rs 260 crore contract for reopening HCL's Rakha copper mines

KOLKATA: Hindustan Copper Limited (HCL), the country's largest state owned copper company, reported a 1.9% dip in profit before tax (PBT) in the third quarter (Q3) of the current financial year FY13 to Rs 110.52 crore, compared to same period last year.

The board of directors of HCL approved the third quarter financial results on Tuesday at a meeting held in the city.

The company's board also approved a Rs 260 crore engineering procurement construction ( EPC) contract for re-opening and expansion of Rakha mine to the consortium of Kopex Shaft Sinking Company, Poland, who will be the lead partner and India Resource Ltd, Australia. The capacity of Rakha mine has been designed to produce ore at the rate of 1.5 million tonne per annum.

Incidentally, India Resources has been working at the company's Surda mines in Jharkhand since 2007. On the production and financial front, the company's performance saw an improvement compared to the previous quarter (Q2).

During the third quarter, turnover went down by 8% to Rs 350 crore while HCL's ore production was 8.92 lakh tonne during the quarter which is 7.5 % higher than previous quarter. On a quarter to quarter basis, production went up 2.5%.