Indian Mining Venture

Press, Volume CIX, Issue 32313, 3 June 1970, Page 22

Indian Mining Venture

(N Z.P. A.-Reuter—Copyright) NEW DELHI. India is developing a 900 million rupee ($lO7 million) mining and metallurgical complex in its northern desert state of Rajasthan. With French collaboration, it aims to produce 31,000 metric tons of muchneeded copper a year. While India's demand for copper and its alloys is about 85,000 metric tons a year at present, production is 9600 metric tons from the only coppgr smelter, in Bihar State. Imports in 1968 of 36,429 metric tons of copper and alloys cost the country 326,200,000 rupees ($39.9 million). The final import figure for 1969 is expected to be much higher. The new complex, which is being developed with financial and technical aid from a group of French firms, will have an ore concentrator, a smelter, a refinery to produce electrolytic copper, and an acid and fertiliser plant. Some silver and gold will also be processed as byproducts. The project at Khetri, about 120 miles south-west of Delhi, will also boost the economy of the desert state, where thousands of people

live on government welfare 11 during harsh annual 1 droughts. j In full production, the : r complex will produce 31,000 : metric tons of copper, I 200,000 metric tons of super- I I phosphate fertiliser, 600 i , metric tons of sulphuric acid, i ’ 120,000 ounces of silver and ; I 8500 ounces of gold. ; The French firms are inves- i I ting about 23 million rupees | ($2,733,000) in the project, : ' which will require 150 million i rupees ($17,850,000) in I . foreign exchange. The rest . will come from the Export- j i Import Bank, French consor- ; ; tium credit, Swedish credit ' and free resources. An agreement has been ■ r signed with Outo Kumpu Oy , . Company of Finland, for the j use of its flash-smelting pro- ' cess. , The project was originally j to be commissioned in 1971,

but has been delayed, mainly by design . changes aimed at increasing the capacity to 31,000 metric tons from 21,000 metric tons. The copper reserves at Khetri are estimated at 28 million metric tons, with an average copper content of 0.8 per cent. But India will still be very short of copper after the new project starts production, since demand is expected to rise to 124,000 metric tons by 1973-74. Exploratory surveys have indicated the presence of several important copper reserves in various parts of the country. Priority is being given to studying and developing them where possible. One of the most important finds is a copper-lead deposit in the south Indian State of Andhra Pradesh. According to official estimates, it contains more than six million metric tons of copper ore, and more than 10 million metric tons of lead. Khetri engineers also noticed the occurrence of uranium, cobalt minerals and nickel in the copper belt. The Indian Bureau of Mines and the Atomic Energy Department have undertaken drilling operations to assay these mineral deposits.