Hindustan Copper Limited (HCL), a Miniratna Category-I, Government of India (GoI) Enterprise under the administrative control of the Ministry of Mines, was incorporated on 9th November 1967 under the Companies Act., 1956. It was established as a Govt. of India Enterprise to take over all plants, projects, schemes and studies pertaining to the exploration and exploitation of copper deposits from National Mineral Development Corporation Ltd. It is the only company in India engaged in mining of copper ore and owns all the operating mining lease of Copper ore and also the only integrated producer of refined copper (vertically integrated company).
The Company has the facilities for production & marketing of copper concentrate, copper cathodes, continuous cast copper rod and by-products, such as anode slime (containing gold, silver, etc.), copper sulphate and sulphuric acid. Presently, company is focusing on mining & beneficiation operation and is primarily selling copper concentrate as the main product. In the concluded financial year 2022-23, the Company has earned a net profit (PAT) of Rs 295.31 crore against a sales turnover of Rs 1660.63 crore. HCL’s mines and plants are spread across five operating Units, one each in the States of Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Jharkhand, Maharashtra and Gujarat as named below:
| November 1967 | Incorporated to take over from National Mineral Development Corporation Ltd. |
| March 1972 | M/s Indian Copper Corporation Limited, Private Sector Company, located at Ghatsila, Jharkhand having facilities of Smelter and Refinery was Nationalized and made part of HCL. |
| February 1975 | Fully integrated Copper complex from mining to refining came on stream at Khetri ( capacity 31,000 tonnes of refined copper) |
| November 1982 | The largest hard rock open pit mine in the country came into stream at Malanjkhand in Madhya Pradesh with capacity 2 million tonnes ore |
| December 1989 | Continuous Cast Wire Rod plant of South Wire Technology of capacity 60,000 MT was commissioned at Taloja in Maharashtra. |
| June 2015 | Secondary Copper Smelter and Refinery Unit at Jhagadia, Gujarat ( 50,000 TPA of Copper Cathodes Conforming to LME-A grade ) was acquired |