The assets to be reorganised include ICC's two remaining operative mines - Surda and Rakha - and a smelter plant at nearby Moubhandar.HCL will also sell some prime land it owns in and around Ghatsila. "A committee set up to assess the value of the assets on sale will be finalising the pricing mechanism in a month's time," said Intuc-affiliated Mosabani Mines Labour Union president KP Singh (MMLU).Life Insurance Corporation (LIC) is in talks with the company for a part of its Circus Maidan land property that lies between Ghatsila and Moubhandar. The HCL management is also considering selling off some residential quarters to its employee-occupants and the prices are being worked out by the assessing committee.

The company will sell scrap lying at its recently closed mines in Fathargora and Kenduadih.Recently, around 400 of HCL's 1,200 `common services' personnel, which provided support services to the entire Mosabani group of mines, accepted a voluntary retirement scheme (VRS) that was open until July 31. Besides, a company-wide VRS is also open to HCL employees until August 19.The Mosabani group shut down Badia, Banalopa, Pathorgora and Kenduadih mines in recent years and the group now owns only the Surda mines. "Surda mines surpassed its production target of 250 tonne of metal-in-concentrate (MIC). In July, we actually produced 252 tonne of MIC," Singh said.

He also said that on average, 1,200 tonne of ore is being mined a day from Surda whereas production never exceded 1,000 tonne a day in the last five years. However, production at the Rakha mines, which are independent of the Mosabani group, is being hampered by a crunch in funds. The MIC produced at Surda and Rakha goes into the making of copper products including cathodes, at the 20,000-tonne-capacity smelter plant in Moubhandar.The Union government has already started the disinvestment process at the four HCL units. While in the first phase, HCL's Kheti (Rajasthan) and Taloja (Maharashtra) units have been lined up for disinvestment before the end of the current fiscal, the second phase will see disinvestment in its two remaining units in Malanjkhand (MP) and Ghatsila (Bihar).