Jamshedpur, July 8: The mines ministry is considering providing additional funds to the ailing public sector undertaking (PSU), Hindustan Copper Limited (HCL).

Two senior officials of the ministry, who were in Ghatshila today, to make an assessment of the assets of the Indian Copper Complex (ICC), an HCL unit, told leaders of various labour unions that the ministry is considering the possibility of giving additional funds to the PSU to enhance its performance.

Mines ministry additional secretary Sudha Pillai and director Vinod Kumar today inspected the ICC infrastructure for more than four hours. They were accompanied by chairman-cum-managing director of the PSU, Rana Shome. The officials also interacted with senior ICC officials, including general manager of the unit P. Swaroop.

“We had a meeting with the mines ministry officials and told them that the ministry must grant the PSU additional funds so that new mines could be opened and the ICC smelter plant could be expanded to increase the production. Both Pillai and Kumar told us that the HCL management had suggested the same to the ministry. The ministry is considering the proposal,” general secretary of ICC Workers Union Ajit Ray said.

During their stay at Ghatshila, the ministry officials visited the Musaboni and Rakha townships. They also surveyed the closed copper mines at Surda since the ministry has decided to re-open them.

According to Ray, the union has placed a five-point memorandum to the ministry officials that include wage revision of HCL employees which has been pending for over eight years, increase in the retirement age of workers from 58 to 60 and opening of two new mines at Siddeshwar and Chapri.

Later, a delegation of the Jharkhand Copper Mazdoor Union (JCMU) met the officials and discussed the prospects of expansion of the ICC smelter plant.

“We told Pillai and Kumar that there is an urgent need to invest in expansion and modernisation of the smelter plant to increase production capacity. At present the production of blister copper at the smelter plant is about 16,500 tons per annum. It should be increased to at least 40,000 tons a year so that the company could cash in on the growing demand of copper in the domestic and international markets,” JCMU general secretary Debi Prasad Mukherjee said.