HCL Signed MoU with Madhya Pradesh Government for speedy clearance

Public sector Enterprise Hindustan Copper Ltd (HCL) on 31 October 2012 signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with a Madhya Pradesh government  for obtaining  required clearances of its proposed investment of 1856 crore Rupees in the state.

The MoU was signed between HCL Chairman-cum-Managing Director K.D. Diwan, and Arun Kumar Bhatt, Managing Director, MP Trade & Investment Facilitation Corporation Ltd (TRIFAC), at a global investor summit in Indore.

HCL is Planning to build a five million tonne capacity underground mine beneath its present opencast mine at Malanjkhand by 2017-18.

With signing of MoU, HCL is entitled to obtain necessary clearances, concessions and waivers for the Malanjkhand project from the State Government. In turn, the government have the right to terminate the MoU, if HCL does not initiate work on the project within six months of timeline.

The basic idea of the project is to construct an underground mine of 5 million tonne facility in Malanjkhand. Malanjkhand is the single largest copper deposit of India and is estimated to have around 221 million tonne of reserves.

Malanjkhand Copper Project was established in 1982. The Project was initially set up by Hindustan Copper Ltd to exploit the copper ore through an open pit mine.