Hindalco Industries Ltd has shortlisted 10 copper mines in four countries, while London-listed metals and mining group Vedanta Resources Plc plans a majority stake in Zambia's Konkola Copper Mines.
Hindalco, which also owns two copper mines in Australia, is looking for new mines in Peru, Chile, Brazil and Australia.
"These mines are on our radar and we will look at acquiring some of them," said Debu Bhattacharya, managing director of Hindalco.
Australian mines would eventually supply about 20 percent of Hindalco's copper concentrate needs, but the company aims to get about 40 percent of its supply from its own mines in the long term, a company official said.
Copper concentrate is an intermediate product in copper making.
Hindalco, India's largest aluminium producer and a leading copper maker, is doubling the capacity of its copper smelter in the western Indian state of Gujarat to 500,000 tonnes a year.
It is developing copper mines in Australia acquired by the company in the past few years. From this month the company started sourcing copper concentrate from its Australian Mount Gordon mine for its Gujarat smelter. Its Nifty mines in Australia are expected to start shipments after about a year.
Hindalco's copper output was 186,611 tonnes in the year to March 2003 compared with 185,159 in the previous year.
Vedanta, with copper, zinc and aluminium operations in India and two copper mines in Australia, has no immediate plans to supply copper concentrate from Zambian mines to India, but such a possibility cannot be ruled out in the long run, said an official of its Indian subsidiary, Sterlite Industries.
Sterlite has signed a long-term contract with Brazil's Companhia Vale do Rio Doce (CVRD) to source copper concentrate for its copper smelter located at Tuticorin in Tamil Nadu state in south India.
Vedanta's Australian mines contribute about 22 percent of Sterlite's copper concentrate requirement of 600,000 tonnes a year and the rest is sourced from mines located overseas, the official said.