Hindustan Copper Ltd makes record profit of Rs. 331 crore in 2006-07

Shri Sis Ram Ola, Minister of Mines informed the Parliamentary Consultative Committee(PCC), here today, that in a major turn around Hindustan Copper Ltd. (HCL), a PSU under his Ministry, has made a record profit of Rs. 331.78 crore during 2006-07. Prior to his taking charge of Ministry of Mines in 2004-05, Shri Ola said that HCL had been incurring losses continuously for the previous eight years. The Minister pointed to the commencement of a turn around in year 2004-05 when the Company posted a profit of Rs. 52 crore and in 2005-06 the profit increased to Rs.100.22 crore before reaching all time high levels in 2006-07. Agenda for today’s PCC meeting was "working of HCL".

Shri Ola also emphasized that the urgent need of further strengthening the Company and said necessary steps are being taken in that direction. The Company has utilized its capacity appropriately and ore production & copper production of the Company has shown significant growth. During 2006-07 HCL’s ore production was 32.70 lakh tones against 26.37 lakh tones in 2005-06. Production of metal in concentrates increased to 30231 tonnes from 22984 tonnes during this period. India has vast reserves of copper. HCL is the only copper producing company in India which has mining operations.

Annual copper demand in the country stand at about 4.40 lakh tonne while domestic production was 30,231 tonne during 2006-07. The annual demand growth of about 7% calls for urgently augmenting copper production from domestic resources, in which HCL has a crucial role to play.

Members made several important suggestions. These include immediate recruitment of staff in HCL which has been held up for 12 years including the candidates from weaker sections like SCs/STs, enhancing retirement age of the employees to 60 years from 58 years at present in line with other PSUs etc. Members also suggested that efforts should be made to stop exodus of experienced and qualified personnel from mining PSUs.

The members who attended the meeting are: S/Shri Jual Oram, K. Virupakshappa, Tushar A. Choudhary, Dr. Prasanna Kumar Patasani, Tukaram Renge Patil and Raghuraj Singh Shakya from Lok Sabha and Shri Rudra Narayan Pany from Rajya Sabha. Shri J.P. Singh, Secretary(Mines) and senior officers of the Ministry of Mines and HCL were also present.

Source : Press Information Bureau

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