HCL & Miners

India has exactly one listed pure-play copper ore miner: Hindustan Copper (GoI 66.14%). Everyone else touches copper downstream — Hindalco smelts imported concentrate (inside a diversified aluminium major), Adani's Kutch smelter sits in unlisted subsidiaries, Vedanta's Indian copper business remains the shut Sterlite plant. So the miner lens in India is an HCL lens — and HCL is a fundamentally different machine from every recycler on this board: it owns the ore, so it captures the full copper price, not a conversion spread.

Price (Aug 7)

₹540

52wk ₹227–760

Market cap

₹52,223 cr

~$5.5bn

TTM P/E · P/B

56.9x · ~15x

the objection

FY26 PAT

₹921 cr

+97% YoY; CFO ₹1,474 cr

FY26 OPM

48.7%

Q4: 54.3% (record)

Q1 FY27 results

Aug 10

Monday — window closed Jul 1

Google Finance / screener.in, Aug 6–7, 2026. ROE/ROCE per screener FY26 (32.9% / 42.4%); MarketsMojo computes lower on TTM-average capital. ICRA AA+ (Stable).

Hindustan Copper

NSE: HINDCOPPER · Kolkata · GoI PSUPure ore miner — concentrate seller₹540 · ₹52,223 cr · 56.9x

FY26 PAT

₹921 cr

+97% YoY

FY26 OPM

48.7%

Q4: 54.3%

FY26 CFO

₹1,474 cr

160% conversion

MIC FY26

27,421 t

7-year high

Q1 FY27

Results due Aug 10, 2026 (Monday). FY26 was a step-change year (PAT +97% to ₹921 cr on volumes +9% and price +46%).

Take: HCL is the best business model on this entire board right now — sole domestic supplier of the scarcest input, at zero TC/RC, with both price engines firing. It is also the most cyclically exposed stock at 57x trailing. The value-investor move is to own the model, not the multiple: the study windows (next tab) are about waiting for the price to disagree with the business for a while.

FY26 vs FY25

	FY25	FY26
Ore (Mt)	3.47	3.67
MIC (t)	~25,140	27,421
Revenue	2,071	3,078
PAT	469	921
CFO	544	1,474

Hindustan Copper

Business

Why the setup is unusually good…(3)

Adjacent copper exposure (context, not recommendations)(4)

…and why the price already knows(4)

Quarterly P&L (₹ cr, standalone)

FY26 vs FY25