Adani starts $1.2 billion copper plant

Billionaire Gautam Adani-led group has announced the start of the first phase of the world’s largest single-location copper manufacturing plant at Mundra in Gujarat. This will help cut India’s dependence on imports and aid energy transition.

Kutch Copper, a subsidiary of the group’s flagship firm Adani Enterprises Ltd, “commissioned the first phase” of a $1.2 billion “greenfield copper refinery by dispatching the maiden batch of cathodes to customers,” the company said in a statement.

The facility has begun operations with an initial production capacity of 0.5 million tons of refined copper per year, and a full-scale capacity of 1 million tons is expected by March 2029.

India joins China and other nations in rapidly expanding the production of copper, a metal crucial for the transition away from fossil fuels.

Copper is required for technologies critical to the energy transition, such as electric vehicles (EVs), charging infrastructure, solar photovoltaics (PV), wind, and batteries.

“On completion of the second phase, Kutch Copper, with 1 million tonnes per annum, will be the world’s largest single-location custom smelter, benchmarking ESG performance standards while leveraging state-of-the-art technology and digitalization,” the statement said.

It will create 2,000 direct and 5,000 indirect employment opportunities.