CHAIRMAN HONOURED BY BIHAR CHAMBERS IN PATNA - AWARD PRESENTED BY HON'BLE VICE PRESIDENT OF INDIA, GOVERNOR OF BIHAR, CHIEF MINISTER - BIHAR AND DEPUTY CHIEF MINISTER - BIHAR

Mr. Anil Agarwal - Chairman, HZL was honoured on 9th September, 2016 by Bihar Chambers of Commerce and Industries in Patna on the occasion of the celebrations of their 90^th Anniversary. Chairman received the honour from Hon’ble Vice President – Mr. Mohd. Hamid Ansari, Hon. Governor of Bihar - Mr. Ramnath Kovind, Hon. Chief Minister Bihar – Mr. Nitish Kumar and Hon. Deputy Chief Minister Bihar – Mr. Tejashwi Prasad Yadav.

The award was bestowed on him for making the State of Bihar proud by becoming an extremely successful industrialist. While speaking to the media, Chairman spoke about his days in Bihar and how through his passion, determination and hard work, he has achieved what he is today. 

HINDUSTAN ZINC SET TO INVEST RS. 8000 CRORE BEGINNING GOLDEN JUBILEE

Hindustan Zinc that completes its 50 years of existence on 10^th January 2016, is India’s only the world’s leading integrated zinc-lead-silver producer

As Hindustan Zinc, a Vedanta Group company in Zinc-Lead-Silver business celebrates its Golden Jubilee, completing 50 years of its existence; the company is all set for its next phase of expansion of its mining and smelting operations with an investment of Rs.8000 crore.

Hindustan Zinc is looking to expand its all operations in a time-frame of 3-5 years, taking current ore production levels of 9.36 MTPA to 14.00 MTPA and finished metal production levels from 0.85 MTPA to 1.10 MTPA.

The Company has its mines located in Agucha, Sindesar Khurd, Zawar, Rajpura Dariba, and Kayad, all in Rajasthan.  The smelters are located in Dariba, Chanderiya and Debari, also in Rajasthan. 

Hindustan Zinc which was formed under an Act of Parliament on 10^th January 1966 is India’s only and the world’s leading integrated zinc-lead-silver producing company.

Anil Agarwal, the Chairman of Vedanta Group, has expressed his happiness towards providing zinc sufficiency to India. “When we acquired Hindustan Zinc as part of Government disinvestment program in 2002, our focus was to make India self-sufficient in zinc. We are very proud that by adopting latest environment friendly technology, large investment in capacity expansions and continuous exploration, Hindustan Zinc is able to increase the production five-fold and yet have reserves for another 30 years”, he said.

The turning point came when in the year 2002, under the disinvestment program by the government, Hindustan Zinc was acquired by Sterlite. Since then, the company has grown multi-fold. The metal production capacity is 1 million tonne in the year today from about 200,000 tonne in 2002. The mine production capacity has also increased to 10.25 million tonne today from 3.45 million tonne in 2002.

The reserves and resources, which were 143.7 million tonnes in the year 2002 today stand at 375.1 million tonne after consuming reserves for about 14 years. The philosophy of the company on exploration has been to add equal reserve for every tonne of ore mined.

The investment of Rs. 12,000 crore in the past years have brought many changes in not just asset optimization but also building new facilities into the business to give value to the shareholders.  At the time of disinvestment, Hindustan Zinc did not have captive power generation or wind energy farms. Today the company produces 474 MW of captive thermal power and 274 MW of wind energy.

The turnover of the company has also seen a turn-around, from mere Rs. 1,200 crore in the year 2002 to more than Rs. 14,500 crore in the year 2014-15. The profit too has jumped from just Rs. 68 crore in the year 2002 to Rs. 8,178 crore in the year 2014-15.

The contribution to the exchequer has also seen significant change, which increased from Rs. 364 crore in the year 2002 to more than Rs. 5,000 crore in 2014-15.

“Though the zinc mining in India dates back to over 2500 years old, and the retorts of ancient mining can still be seen at Zawar, about 45 km from Udaipur; the zinc as a metal has been not much known or utilized in India. We are still exploring the new areas where zinc could add value to consumers and also add in the GDP of the country. We are exploring the possibilities of galvanizing of car bodies and structures to increase their life-span accordingly”, said Sunil Duggal, the Chief Executive Officer of Hindustan Zinc.

Hindustan Zinc is also looking to set-up a new Fertilizer Plant with a capacity to manufacture 0.5 MTPA of Di-Ammonium Phosphate in Debari in district Udaipur with an estimated investment of Rs. 1350 crores.

As the company celebrates its Golden Jubilee year, it is all set to invest another Rs. 8000 crore in the coming 3-5 years on expansions of its mines and smelting operations.

GOLDEN JUBILEE OF HINDUSTAN ZINC - 50 GLORIOUS YEARS OF BEING ZINC OF INDIA

The story of Hindustan Zinc that celebrates its Golden Jubilee, from the days of PSU, to post disinvestment, a Vedanta Group company. A journey of a company that is the world’s leading integrated zinc producer today...

Zinc mining is not new in India. The traces of zinc mining in India can be seen at Zawar, about 40 kms from the city of lakes, Udaipur in Rajasthan. Zawarmala mine at Zawar is an ancient mine which as per the radio carbon dating is over 2500 years old. The ancient retorts can still be seen while going towards the Zawar mines. The history of Zinc-Lead production in India goes back to its roots in 1942 when a small Lead smelting pilot plant was set-up at Tundoo, near Dhanbad in Bihar.

In 1944 the Metal Corporation of India was formed and all the assets of the company were transferred to MCI. In 1945 Government of India surrendered the mining rights over Zawar to Mewar Durbar and in the same year Metal Corporation of India obtained the prospecting license for 2 years, and later got mining lease in 1950.

In 1960 Metal Corporation of India obtained license for production of 9,000 tonnes per annum of Lead and 540,000ozs of silver. In 1965 the Government of India proposed nationalization of Zinc-Lead mining and smelting, and an MCI was nationalized by an Act of Parliament.

It was 10th January 1966, a new era began, when Hindustan Zinc Limited was incorporated in Rajasthan and in the same year, foundation of Debari Smelter was also laid down, with a modest target of 18,000 tonnes per annum of Zinc. In 1972, 1st expansion programme of Hindustan Zinc launched to increase the capacity at Debari smelter.  Simultaneously Balaria mine at Zawar was also put on course to develop to meet the increasing requirement of zinc concentrate.

Year 1976, was a historical day when Hindustan Zinc posted a profit of Rs. 10 crore. In 1976 only, to give impetus to research and development, Hindustan Zinc established its Central Research & Development Laboratory (CRDL), and from this day, metal recoveries and optimization of waste became a priority.

In 1978, Vizag Smelter got commissioned and Zinc production started through imported concentrate. The year also saw commissioning of Balaria mine at Zawar. In 1978, the Agnigundla Lead mine was taken over from Hindustan Copper Limited with a production capacity of 300Tpd Lead – Zinc ore. This mine was closed in year 2002 because of unviable operation.

History was about to be unveiled for India when in 1979 origin of Rampura Agucha mine was traced. Hindustan Zinc acquired the mining rights of Rampura Agucha mine and in 1980 1st exploration hole at Rampura Agucha was performed. The feasibility report came in about 20 months and suggested development of 3000 tonnes of mining per day. Zinc-Lead mining in India was all set to make a mark in international market.

Sargipali Lead mine in Sundergarh district of Odisha was commissioned in the year 1983 with the production capacity of 500 tonnes per day Lead ore. Later on, it was closed in the year 2001 because of the exhaustion of the reserves. This also brought a challenge to expand the capacities of Zinc-Lead smelting operations. Meanwhile in 1984 Rajpura Dariba mine was also commissioned. 1989 was a historical year when production from Rampura Agucha was commissioned.

In 1991 Hindustan Zinc commissioned out its first blast furnace based on Pyro-Smelting Technology at Chanderiya. To match the growing demand of Zinc-Lead in India, Hindustan Zinc, in the year 1994, carried out the Pillar Blast at Mochia mine in Zawar.  The meticulously planned blast was one of the rare incidents not only for India but for the entire Asia.  8 major blasts were done during the span of 1986-2004 and the biggest blast was executed on 13th June 1994 that resulted in generation of 550,000 tonnes of ore.

It was also decided to develop Sindesar Khurd deposits, in the year 1997. In the same year a Zinc Smelter with a capacity of 60,000 to 100,000 tonnes was also planned. Mining probabilities at Ajmer district were also explored in the same year. History was again made in the year 1999 when Hindustan Zinc became a ‘debt free company’.

The journey from 1966 to 1999 has been a journey that laid the foundation of mechanised Zinc-Lead mining and smelting in India. But the world was moving ahead in production and capacities and it was time for the government to look for disinvestment in public sector units which had potential to grow further but were lacking due to funds and resources.

It was 10th April 2002 – a landmark decision privatized Hindustan Zinc and Sterlite Group was declared successful bidder for acquiring 26% equity in Hindustan Zinc. The result was evident, in the year 2003, Hindustan Zinc registered 113.58% growth in its profit. The journey for making Hindustan Zinc a world class asset had begun. In the year 2004, 35,000 tonnes of Zinc de-bottlenecking was completed at Chanderiya Smelting Complex.

Year 2005 was coming out to be an year of expansions and commissions. The year saw commissioning of Hydro-I Zinc Smelter at Chanderiya Smelting Complex with a production capacity of 170,000 tonnes per annum. Two captive power plants of 77 MW each were also commissioned during the same year and in the same year Rampura Agucha Mine was expanded from 2.30 Million tonnes per annum to 3.75 million tonnes per annum.

This expansion made Hindustan Zinc the world’s 3rd largest integrated zinc producer. An achievement that made the entire world look at India as the new leader in zinc production. To address the growing need for Lead in India, in the year 2006, the Company commissioned a 50,000 tonnes per annum Ausmelt Lead Smelter at Chanderiya Smelting Complex.

In the year 2007, Sindesar Khurd Mine began production with an initial capacity of 0.3 million tonne per annum. Another landmark decision surprised the world when Hindustan Zinc entered into green energy by commissioning 38.4 MW of Wind Energy Farms in Gujarat.

The production of zinc was all set to improve further when in the year 2008 Hindustan Zinc commissioned Hydro-II, and made a world record by commissioning a smelter in flat 20 months. Simultaneously Company also commissioned an 80 MW of captive power generation unit at Chanderiya. In the same year another 50,4 MW of wind energy farms were commissioned in Gujarat.

Year 2009 again became a historical year for expansions. Rampura Agucha mine this year got expanded to 5.00 million tonnes per annum from 3.75 million tonne capacity. Debottlenecking at Chanderiya and Debari increased metal production capacity by 88,000 tonnes per annum. The year also increased Company’s thermal power generation capacity for captive use by commissioning of 80 MW Captive Power Plant at Zawar. Wind energy farms get another commissioning with 34.4 MW, taking the total capacity to 123.2 MW. The year 2009 made Hindustan Zinc the World’s 2nd Largest Integrated Zinc Producer.

The growing international demand for Zinc-Lead made Hindustan Zinc successfully complete another expansion phase. In the year 2010 the Company further expanded its mining capacity to 6.00 Million tonnes per annum at Rampura Agucha from 5.00 Million tonnes. With this the mining capacities of Hindustan Zinc increased to 8.40 million tonnes per annum.

With growing mining activity it was necessary to also increase the smelting capacities. Hydro-III with 210,000 tonnes per annum was commission at Rajpura Dariba. With this the metal production capacity increased to 964,000 tonnes per annum, which included 879,000 of zinc and 85,000 of lead.

2010 was the was the year when Hindustan Zinc became a world leader, the world’s largest Integrated Zinc Producing company, a strategic and landmark position for India. The company carried out a first ever intensive Heliborne Survey in 2010.

In the year 2011, 2.00Mtpa capacity silver-rich Sindesar Khurd mine got commissioned, bringing a new ray of hope in Silver production and underground mining technology in India. To give support to Dariba Zinc Smelter, the company commissioned 160 MW of thermal power units. Wind energy was also increased by 48.7 MW. To give further focus to Lead production, Hindustan Zinc commission 100,000 tonnes per annum Lead Smelter at Dariba, increasing the Lead production capacity to 185,000 tonnes per annum. 

The wind energy got a further boost by commission of 101.6 MW wind farms and now the project included states of Rajasthan, Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, and Karnataka besides Gujarat, taking the wind power generation capacity to about 273.5 MW. With growing need for underground mining at Rampura Agucha, in the Year 2012, the company started developing underground mining work at Rampura Agucha and simultaneously green-field Kayar mine.

In the year 2013 the production of developmental ore from Rampura Agucha underground mine and Kayad underground mine started. The company also initiated the expansion work at other mines.Recently Hindustan Zinc has signed MoU with the Rajasthan Government under the Resurgent Rajasthan to invest Rs 8,357 crore in the next 3-5 years towards expansion of its mines and smelting capacities.

The target is set for the future to increase mine production to 12.80 million tonne from the current level of 9.09 million tonne per annum, and finished metal production to 1.028 million tonne from current level of 0.85 million tonne per annum.

14,000 people work in Hindustan Zinc today which has about 20% female employees (in fresh intake). The focus is on state-of-the-art environment friendly technology, a strong vendor-supplier base, and a strong foot in Indian Zinc-Lead market with over 80% domestic market share. Sustainability and care for the community is on utmost priority. Speak to the people who have worked in the past or working at present for the Company, and they would instantly say, ‘they own the company’.

CHAIRMAN, VEDANTA GROUP VISITED JAIPUR ENGINEERING COLLEGE AND RESEARCH CENTRE, JAIPUR 18TH NOVEMBER, 2015

Shri Anil Agarwal - Chairman, Vedanta Group visited Jaipur Engineering College and Research Centre, Jaipur on 18^th November, 2015. During his visit, he addressed more than 1500 students and faculty members of the institute. While interacting with the students, he spoke about the utilisation of natural resources and its importance in improving the GDP, national income and export. He also gave his views on how to reduce the import bill and laid his emphasis on how crucial it is to eradicate poverty and generate employment for development of the country.

HINDUSTAN ZINC AWARDED WITH "FROST & SULLIVAN - GREEN MANUFACTURING EXCELLENCE AWARD 2015"

We are very pleased to inform that Hindustan Zinc’s Chanderiya Lead-Zinc Smelting Complex has been awarded with "Frost & Sullivan - Green Manufacturing Excellence Award 2015" in Mega Large Business. The coveted award was received by Mr. Rajesh Kundu – Location Head, Ms. Nikita Bhakta – AM (HR) and Mr. RS Rao – Executive (Process) from Hindustan Zinc’s Chanderiya Unit in a glittering event organized at Hotel Hyatt in Mumbai in May 2015.

Hindustan Zinc Chanderiya Lead-Zinc Smelter also received "Certificate of Merit for Safety Excellence", which was received by Mr. Dilip Sharma, Executive- Safety.

HINDUSTAN ZINC AWARDED WITH "PLATTS INDUSTRY LEADERSHIP FOR BASE METALS AWARD 2015"

We are very pleased to inform that Hindustan Zinc has been awarded with "Platts Industry Leadership for Base Metals Award 2015" in a glittering event organized by Platts in London. The award was received Mr. Deepak Kumar from Vedanta’s London office on behalf of Hindustan Zinc.

This award recognizes base metals companies that have weathered the ups and downs by taking action to improve efficiency, tailor their output to meet demand, and focus on core strengths. Judges identified winners based on right decisions about investment, growth prospects and diversity in preparation for opportunities ahead.  It also included Financial Results, Innovation, Product Quality, Safety and Strategic Vision.

Founded in 1909, Platts is a leading global provider of energy, petrochemicals, metals and agriculture information and a premier source of benchmark prices for the physical and futures markets.  Platts' news, pricing, analytics, commentary and conferences help customers make better-informed trading and business decisions and help the markets operate with greater transparency and efficiency.  Customers in more than 150 countries benefit from Platts’ coverage of the biofuels, carbon emissions, coal, electricity, oil, natural gas, metals, nuclear power, petrochemical, shipping and sugar markets.  

FIRST WORKSHOP OF HINDUSTAN ZINC "SAKHI" CAMPAIGN, A GRAND SUCCESS

350 rural and tribal Women got together to participate in the First Workshop of Hindustan Zinc's women empowerment campaign "SAKHI".  The workshop was held at Vidhya Bhawan Auditorium in Udaipur today. These women from Hindustan Zinc self-help-groups traveled from the nearby villages of our business locations at Rajsamand, Chittorgarh, Bhilwara, Ajmer and Udaipur districts. 

The interactive workshop was taken by Prof. Anuja Sisodia, Indian Institute of Crafts & Design. From Hindustan Zinc, Mr. C.S.R. Mehta- Head Corporate Relations, Mr. Pavan Kaushik - Head Corporate Communications, Ms. Sushma Sharma - Incharge CSR, HZL also spoke about various aspects of socio-economic empowerment in rural and tribal women.

The workshop saw discussion and interactive sessions on changing scenario in the garments and home-furnishing market, development of handicraft industry, quality check in production, colour combination as per changing seasons, production as per current fashion trends and pricing of the products. 

Here, we present the glimpse of the Workshop-

Vedanta : Exploration Must to Eradicate Poverty in India

By Anil Agarwal, Chairman - Vedanta Group

For a country with one of the largest reserves of natural resources in the world, the transformational potential of India’s resources sector is immense. The sector has the potential to add $1 trillion to the Indian economy that can substantially contribute towards much-needed investments in education, health and nutrition. India’s economic rise since 1991 has resulted in a sharp rise in resource needs, from petroleum products to power and infrastructure. This, in turn, has led to a burgeoning import bill that stands at $485 billion. Oil and petroleum products is the single-largest contributor with $150 billion. This is close to 10% of the country’s GDP. Gold, silver, coal and fertilizer are the other main items that are adding to this bill. If this continues, vulnerability of the Indian economy to external shocks will become higher. It is, therefore, imperative to take corrective actions immediately.

India is blessed with significant reserves of natural resources and we can produce all the key imported resources indigenously at 15-20% of the import cost. Thus, we can save $300 billion on yearly basis and, within 3-4 years, we can add $1 trillion to the economy.

India’s current underutilization of resources tells almost an unbelievable story. Despite having a similar geology to North America, Latin America, Australia and South Africa, we produce only 20% of our natural resource requirements. The mineral exploration industry in countries such as Canada spends over $2 billion per annum in greenfield exploration, whereas India spends less than $50 million.

What is worse is that despite having access to key resources like bauxite, India has been unable to tap into the large aluminium market, widely known as a green metal, and lost out to countries like China that have to fully import the raw material. Even with 3.5 billion tonnes of bauxite, which is the third largest reserve of bauxite in the world, India only manages an annual production of 1.5 million tonnes of aluminium. In contrast, China that has no reserves of bauxite, produces about 20 million tonnes of aluminium annually.

The story is similar in the case of iron ore. Given our reserve level, we are in a position to produce quantities matching Brazil’s and Australia’s, which produce in the range of 600 million tonnes per annum. Against this, we have so far been producing a modest quantity of 125 million tonnes on yearly basis that also stands drastically reduced.

India’s power and infrastructure needs continue to be unmet and under served due to lack of an open and simple exploration policy that will allow exploration of resources in a sustainable manner. The fear that such a move will lead to rampant environmental degradation is also unfounded. With scientific mining and latest technology in mine development and production, these concerns can be fully addressed. A self-declaration policy will allow the companies to take responsibility for their actions, while enabling the government to impose heavy penalties in case of violations.

It is in the industry’s interest to increase mineral reserves through exploration to provide value to the stakeholders in a sustainable manner. A nearly seven-fold increase in zinc output by Hindustan Zinc Ltd after disinvestment is a case in point. This has been possible only due to scientific production and systematic exploration.

India’s need of the hour is greenfield exploration. One such exploration was the discovery of oil in Rajasthan by Cairn India, which was the country’s largest onshore discovery in India in 20 years. Today, Cairn India produces 25% of the country’s total crude oil production. India only has a handful of oil and gas companies. It is imperative to have 15-20 players that will bring in the technology and explore sources that will lead to the development of the exploration and production value chain and also act as an employment multiplier. Similarly, in case of coal and other minerals, many more players need to be brought in for exploration.

The exchequer, both at the Centre and the state level, also stands to gain immensely from a simple exploration policy. Auctioning of blocks and moving to a revenue-sharing model from the current profit-sharing model will allow the government to rake in more royalty and taxes. A recent Pricewaterhouse Coopers report noted that Rajasthan transitioned from a revenue deficit state into a revenue-surplus one in 2010-11 on the strength of Cairn’s Barmer oil fields that started commercial output in late 2009. India needs to aggressively take steps for utilization of its natural resource and resultant downstream manufacturing activities. The Indian corporate community and entrepreneurs are capable of bringing in world-class technology and big investments to support these efforts. State-owned Geological Survey of India (GSI) and Mineral Exploration Corporation (MECL) are also extremely capable of providing guidance for exploration and for development of natural resource sector. Together, we can recreate the transformational change that IT and the telecom sectors have done for the country.

Exploration of domestic natural resource reserves and, thereby, developing manufacturing sectors will not only unlock India’s true potential as an economic powerhouse, it will also help us create better infrastructure, generate employment and bring in latest technology. It can generate significant additional revenues to the government that can be used for the social sector, and investment in education, health and nutrition. India’s growth needs and the aspirations of 1.2 billion people should not be compromised. Unearthing the hidden treasure though scientific exploration and bringing new mines on the mineral map of India with the latest technology alone can empower the people of India.

Article published in Economic Times on 17th December 2012

ET BUSINESS LEADER OF THE YEAR 2012 - ANIL AGARWAL, CHAIRMAN - VEDANTA GROUP

Economic Times Business Leader of the Year 2012 - Anil Agarwal, Chairman, Vedanta Group

Anil Agarwal, Chairman - Vedanta Group has been honoured with the most coveted ‘Economic Times Business Leader of the Year 2012’ Award. The award was presented by the Dr. Manmohan Singh – Hon’ble Prime Minister of India in a glittering ceremony held in Mumbai on 10^th November, 2012 in the presence of distinguished gathering including Union Ministers and Industry leaders.

 

The Economic Times Business Leader of the Year Award Is a part of the ET Awards for Corporate Excellence, given annually by Economic Times, world’s second largest read financial daily. The Business Leader of the year award “seeks to honour a leader who has clearly demonstrated a strategic direction for success, and pursued a vision”

On receiving the honour, Mr. Anil Agarwal, said, “It is a great honour and I feel humbled for having been chosen to receive this recognition. I thank the jury and the Economic Times for giving me this award. This award is a recognition of the Indian entrepreneurial spirit which has delivered world class projects in infrastructure and resources. India has one of the largest deposits of natural resources in the world. Exploration and development of these resources in a sustainable manner has the potential of creating mass employment, eradicating poverty and making India a self sufficient economy.”

The Economic Times felicitated Mr. Agarwal for having driven “growth in trying times”. They also acknowledged that his “growth story is different from typical first-generation entrepreneurs” because he was able to “expand in India and overseas with money raised in global markets”. That set him apart from other Indian entrepreneurs who have expanded in India with domestic capital.

The ET Business Leader of the Year Award is yet another recognition of Mr. Agarwal’s achievements. He has also been felicitated with the prestigious E&Y Entrepreneur of the Year Award in 2008, and Mining Journal’s coveted Lifetime Achievement Award for the year 2009. He was featured by the Forbes Magazines as one of the “48 heroes of Philanthropy” in the world. We all join to congratulate him for achieving this excellence.