Adani, Birla keen to tap Mongolian copper, but face logistics challenge

TWO LARGE companies Adani Enterprises Ltd and Aditya Birla group-owned Hindalco Industries Ltd are keen to source raw material from copper-rich Mongolia, but are concerned about the logistics of transporting copper concentrate from the landlocked Central Asian country to India. Copper concentrates is a key input for refined copper, and India relies on imports for nearly 90 per cent of its supply due to limited domestic mining of this critical mineral. India imports its requirements almost entirely from Indonesia, Chile and Australia. Advertisement Mongolia exported copper ore worth $2.7 billion in 2022 and was the world's 10th largest exporter of…