Sterlite Industries Ltd, part of the Vedanta group in India, has set a target of smelting one million tonne copper per year by 2010. The company has embarked upon capacity-expansion exercises at its plants in Tuticorin in Tamil Nadu and Konkola Copper Mines in Zambia by debottlenecking existing systems to meet the target, said R Kishore Kumar, chief executive officer, Sterlite Industries.
Addressing visiting journalists here, he said the Tuticorin plant?s capacity had been increased to 400,000 tonne per year in 2007. The plant?s capacity was earlier hiked to 300,000 tonne per year in 2002 from 67,000 tonne in 1995.
?We have invested over $20 million for the expansion to 400,000 tonne,? said Kumar, adding that the total investment in the plant has crossed Rs 1,000 crore.
Sterlite Industries is also working on expansion of the Zambian plant to meet the aforementioned target; its capacity will be increased to 400,000 tonne per year from the present 200,000 tonne.
?These enhancements will take the overall capacity of the company to one million tonne in the next two years,? he said.
In addition to the capacity building exercises, Sterlite Industries is examining the prospect of acquiring copper mines in the Congo-Zambia corridor, he added. It is also in the process of setting up a metal refinery at Dubai to extract gold and silver from copper slime.
?We have been exporting slime to companies in the global market. However, given the huge potential and value they hold, we have decided to set up a metal refinery at Dubai to extract gold and silver,? said Kumar.
Slime from the Tuticorin plant contains 15-20 tonne of gold and 70-80 tonne of silver. The plant in Dubai is expected to become operational in the next few months, he said.
Meanwhile, Sterlite Industries is undertaking cost control exercises to become a cost and power efficient company. It has generated nearly 11 mw through an energy recycling mechanism and hopes to generate another 7 mw through new energy initiatives. It is looking at using alternate fuels (fossil fuels) and LNG (liquefied natural gas) to reduce energy costs, Kumar said.
The company plans to set up a 30 mw power project at Malco in Mettur, Tamil Nadu. The power generated from this plant could be utilised in the Tuticorin plant.