Kutch Copper, a subsidiary of Adani Enterprises, plans to integrate 115 MW of renewable energy into its copper refinery operations at Mundra in Gujarat. The initiative was outlined in the company’s maiden sustainability report for financial year 2025–26 and is intended to reduce operational carbon emissions, conserve water and improve resource efficiency.

The company currently operates a copper smelter with a capacity of 500,000 t per annum. It plans to expand this to 1 mn t per annum, making it a planned single-location custom smelter of global scale. The Adani Group has committed $1.2 bn to the project, with renewable-energy supply forming part of its broader environmental, social and governance strategy.

Copper smelting uses heat and chemical processes to extract copper from ore or concentrates. The metal is widely used in electrical wiring, power transmission, electric vehicles and renewable-energy equipment because of its electrical conductivity. The planned capacity expansion is therefore aligned with rising demand linked to electrification and clean-energy infrastructure.

Kutch Copper reports that its operations use nearly 100 per cent desalinated water and follow a zero-liquid-discharge approach. Desalination converts seawater or brackish water into freshwater, while zero-liquid-discharge systems treat wastewater for recovery and reuse, avoiding liquid effluent discharge. The company also reports treating 99.8 per cent of its sulphur emissions before release.

Copper production and environmental management are part of the industrial context for India’s energy transition. India announced its target of achieving net-zero emissions by 2070 at the 2021 United Nations Climate Change Conference, known as COP26. Copper’s chemical symbol is Cu and its atomic number is 29; it is a non-ferrous metal and a good conductor of electricity.