Calcutta: Hindustan Copper (HCL) has reopened the Kendadih copper mine at Ghatsila in Jharkhand after over 16 years. The mine is key to the capacity expansion plan of the state-owned miner.

The copper mine was closed in February 2000 as operations became unviable.

HCL said considering the favourable market conditions now, the company has reworked the business plan.

After obtaining statutory clearances, such as environment and forest, and on the execution of the mining lease deed from the central and the state governments, the company has reopened the mine on December 11.

HCL officials told The Telegraph they started operations after removing water from the mine.

HCL had earmarked an investment of around Rs 70 crore towards the development of the mine and plans to invest more to ramp up capacity.

"Making the mine ready for operation was a big task but one that has been done successfully. We would gradually ramp up capacity, going forward. After March, we would be in a position to reach around 300 tonnes per day and before two years would be in a position to extract around 2.25 lakh tonnes of copper ore annually," a senior HCL officer said.

HCL has chalked out a strategy to expand its production capacity to 12.2 million tonnes per annum from 3.4 million tonnes per annum. The HCL scrip at Rs 92.65 was up 3.93 per cent over the previous close on the Bombay Stock Exchange on Wednesday.

During 2016-17, Hindustan Copper's sales volume was 28,888 tonnes against 24,112 tonnes during the previous year. The firm's operations are spread across Rajasthan, Gujarat, Maharashtra, Jharkhand and Madhya Pradesh.