The Hindu : Business : Sterlite to expand capacity of copper smelter in Tuticorin

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Tuesday, Sep 02, 2008
ePaper | Mobile/PDA Version

Business

Business

Sterlite to expand capacity of copper smelter in Tuticorin

S. Varadharajan

Plans to reach ultimate capacity of one million tonnes at Silvassa and Pearl City

— Photo: Special arrangement

PRESTIGIOUS: A view of the copper smelter of Sterlite Industries at Tuticorin.

CHENNAI: Sterlite Industries India Limited (SIIL), a leading non-ferrous metals and mining company and the flagship of Vedanta Resource of London, is planning to increase the installed capacity of its copper smelter at Tuticorin (Tamil Nadu) to 4.20 lakh tonnes by implementing a de-bottlenecking programme.

Addressing visiting presspersons at the company’s plant at Tuticorin, R. Kishore Kumar, CEO, Sterlite Copper, said the last expansion at the Tuticorin smelter to four lakh tonnes from three lakh tonnes also involved de-bottlenecking of operations. Mr. Kishore Kumar said the capacity addition from 60,000 tonnes to four lakh tonnes happened in just a decade.

In its copper smelting operations, the company is turning out by-products such as sulphuric acid, phosphoric acid and hydrofluo silicic acid. It also produces bismuth and selenium as value added products. The electrolytic process employed in refining leaves out anode slimes, which contain precious metals such as gold and silver. Mr. Kishore Kumar said there were no systems in place to recover these metals from the slime and the recovery would not also be cost-effective. As such, these slimes were sold in international markets. The slimes would contain 2 to 2.5 kg. of these precious metals per tonne of copper. However, the Vedanta group is setting up a gold refinery in Dubai with a capacity of 15-20 tonnes of gold and 70-80 tonnes of silver and these slimes could be put into use in that plant to recover these precious metals.

SIIL, which also has a copper refinery and two copper rod plants at Silvassa in the Union Territory of Dadra and Nagar Haveli , turned out 3.39 lakh tonnes of copper cathodes and 2.25 lakh tonnes of copper rods in 2007-08. Mr. Kishore Kumar said revenues from copper business rose by 8 per cent to Rs. 12,658 crore in 2007-08. However, the operating profit was lower by 30 per cent at Rs. 998 crore. This was due to a fall in treatment charges and refining charges (TC/RC) which resulted in lower margins, The appreciation of the rupee against the U.S. dollar in that period and the rise in fuel costs also added to the problem. However, the company did well in the sale of by-products and revenue from phosphoric acid stood at Rs. 406 crore in 2007-08 against Rs. 337 crore in the previous year, sulphuric acid Rs. 237 crore (Rs. 64 crore) and gypsum Rs. 58 crore (Rs. 4 crore). He said the company was planning to reach one million tonnes capacity in copper by carrying out expansion programmes in the Tuticorin and Silvassa plants against the present capacity of eight lakh tonnes in both the plants.

CSR initiative

The company believes the corporate social responsibility (CSR) initiatives are one of the opportunities to contribute to the society. The initiatives, started a decade ago, have improved the quality of life of the communities, especially, women, children and youth in the district.

Printer friendly page
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Business

News Update

Stories in this Section