Ports-to-energy conglomerate Adani Group has forayed into copper manufacturing, tying up finances from public sector lenders fora 1 million tonnes a year unitat Mundra in Gujarat.

“Kutch Copper Ltd (KCL), a subsidiary of Adani Enterprises Ltd (AEL), is setting up a greenfield copper refinery project for production of refined copper with one million tonnes per annum in two phases,” the company said in astatement.

For the phase-1 capacity of 0.5 million tonnes, KCL has achieved financial closure through a syndicated club loan for the greenfield copperrefinery project at Mundra,Gujarat.It has executed “financing documents with the consorti-um of banks led by State Bank of India (SBI). The other con-sortium members are Bank of Baroda, Canara Bank, Exim Bank of India, Indian Bank,Punjab National Bank, andBank of Maharashtra,” the statement said. The consortium of banks has sanctioned and signed anagreement for the entire debtrequirement of Rs 6,071 crore for the Phase-1 of the KCL Project.

Vinay Prakash, director,Adani Enterprises Ltd, said the project has requisite tech-nology tied up and the con-struction works at the site are progressing well and is sched-uled to commence production during the first half of calen-der year 2024.

“It will be one of the largest copper refinery complexes in the world, with benchmark ESG performance standards, leveraging state-of-the-arttechnology and digitalisation.This financial closure enablesus to accelerate the project and signifies the commitmentof the Adani Group to mobilise the required resources andcomplete the project within the set timelines,” Prakash said.

KCL will be part of the materials, metals and mining vertical of the Adani group. SBI Capital Markets Ltd acted as the financial adviser and Desai & Diwanji Advocates acted as the lenders’ legal counsel. Saraf and Part-ners Law Offices acted as the legal adviser to KCL.

KCL was incorporated on March 24, 2021, with the objec-tive to undertake copper business - related activities such as the manufacture of coppercathodes and copper rods andassociated products.Adani Enterprises Limited (AEL) is the incubation armof Adani group. Adani Ports & SEZ Limited, Adani Trans-mission Limited, Adani Power Limited, Adani Green Energy Limited, Adani Total Gas Limited and Adani WilmarLimited have been incubated in AEL.