UDAIPUR (India CSR): At its 59th Annual General Meeting, Hindustan Zinc Limited, a Vedanta Group company and the world’s largest integrated zinc producer, highlighted its vision for Hindustan Zinc 2.0 – a transformation from being India’s largest zinc and silver producer to becoming a multi-metal, future-enabling enterprise.
While addressing the shareholders, Chairperson Priya Agarwal Hebbar said, “Hindustan Zinc is moving beyond its zinc and silver legacy to become a multi-metal, future-ready enterprise. As demand for critical minerals grows across clean energy, digital infrastructure, and national security, we are building the capabilities and global partnerships to responsibly power India’s growth.”
Hindustan Zinc is actively advancing exploration in copper, lithium, nickel, cobalt, potash, and rare earth elements, while also evaluating prospects in neodymium, antimony, graphite, and germanium. The company has become one of the first private players in India to secure a rare earth (monazite) block, a land-based, non-radioactive deposit distinct from the beach-sand monazite traditionally mined in the country.
To accelerate this journey, Hindustan Zinc has floated international tenders for AI- and drone-led exploration, drawing on global expertise from Australia, South Africa, Chile, and China. These efforts strengthen India’s strategic mineral ecosystem and align with the Government’s Critical Minerals Roadmap.
During the 59th AGM proceedings, the Chairperson also highlighted that Hindustan Zinc’s inclusion in the Futures & Options segment of NSE, along with its presence in the Nifty Next 50 and Nifty 100 indices, marks another significant milestone, reaffirming the strong confidence of investors. Earlier in FY25, the company secured the 3rd position under the Nifty Metal Index based on market capitalisation and emerged among the top 10 wealth creators on the Nifty 200 Index.
Hindustan Zinc is scaling up operations to double production capacity in the coming years, with new smelting capacity and mine expansions underway. First phase of 2x growth strategy is already underway with nearly Rs 12,000 crore invested in a new integrated refined metal smelter of 250 KTPA at Zinc Smelter Debari in Rajasthan, alongside the scale-up of mines and mills across multiple locations. This also includes India’s first-of-its-kind tailings reprocessing project at Rampura Agucha mines, with an investment of Rs 3,823 crore and a 10 million tonnes feed capacity to recover zinc and silver from historical tailings.
Alongside metals, the company is also investing in downstream integration through a large-scale fertilizer plant in Rajasthan, which will leverage sulphuric acid by-products to strengthen Indian agriculture. This step is designed to reduce import dependency, conserve foreign exchange, and provide access to high-quality fertilizers in India.
Even as it scales, Hindustan Zinc continues to integrate sustainability at the core of growth. Nearly 13% of operations are already powered by renewable energy, with a target of reaching 70% by FY28. The company has achieved 3.32 times water positivity and has been ranked the world’s most sustainable metals and mining company by S&P Global CSA 2024 for two consecutive years. Hindustan Zinc also became the first Indian mining company to join the International Council on Mining and Metals (ICMM), reinforcing its alignment with global best practices in responsible and sustainable mining.
Hindustan Zinc 2.0 marks the company’s next phase of growth – built on three pillars: expanding into a multi-metal enterprise, embedding sustainability and circular economy practices across operations, and investing in future-ready technologies and exploration. It represents a bold shift from scale alone to strategic, nation-building growth that places the company at the heart of Atmanirbhar and Viksit Bharat.
(India CSR)
