HINDALCO, BIRLA COPPER, DAHEJ SMELTER

View of Dahej

Hindalco industries Ltd.’s copper division (its copper cathodes are branded as Birla Copper) has operated an Outokumpu flash smelter line with PS converters with the original capacity of 100,000 mtpy of copper at Dahej, India, since 1998. In 2000, the capacity was expanded to 150,000 mtpy. In 2003, the first smelter capacity was increased to 180,000 mtpy and an Ausmelt smelter and converter line with the capacity of 70,000 mtpy was installed.

Hindalco decided to go ahead with a further expansion of its smelter to take the capacity of 500,000 mtpy to become globally competitive in terms of its cost structure, and planned to install a new smelter line with the capacity of 250,000 mtpy.

After reviewing several processes based on compatibility with the existing smelter lines, the Mitsubishi Process was selected for the following reasons:

Low capital cost

Environment friendly

Compact layout

Proven technology

Mitsubishi Materials Corporation licensed Hindalco with the Mitsubishi Process, and provided basic engineering, training services and start-up assistance, as well as proprietary equipment.

Feeding was commenced on April 22, 2005, and then the operation has been improved with the technical assistance by MMC and the expansion of the Mitsubishi line has been under consideration.

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