Hindustan Zinc is India’s only fully integrated producer of zinc, lead, and silver - the company mines ore from its own underground reserves, smelts it into refined metal, and sells it to industrial customers, controlling every step from rock to finished product. It began as a government enterprise in 1966 and, after a pivotal shift from open-pit to underground mining completed in 2018, has grown into the world’s largest integrated zinc producer and a top-ten global silver producer, with the Rampura Agucha mine standing as the largest zinc-producing mine on the planet. Everything the company does flows from a single recurring logic: own the orebody, run the lowest-cost operations, and extract every possible by-product - silver, sulphuric acid, even waste heat - so that the mine pays for itself many times over.
Business segments
Two engines at different stages - a metals cash cow built on world-class ore bodies and cost leadership, and a fertiliser bet under construction that turns a smelter by-product into a new revenue stream.
1. Zinc, lead and silver: the integrated metals engine
The company mines zinc-lead ore from some of the richest underground deposits on earth, smelts it with captive power, and sells refined metal - silver rides along as a high-margin by-product that transforms the economics of the whole operation.
- World-class ore bodies under its feet - HZL holds the world’s second-largest zinc and lead metal reserves and resources, totalling 29.2 million tonnes of contained metal, which supports more than 25 years of mine life at current production rates. The ore grades are among the most superior globally, meaning more metal comes out of every tonne of rock mined - a geological gift that competitors cannot replicate.
- Among the cheapest producers on the planet - the company’s zinc cost of production hit $903 per tonne in the most recent quarter, the lowest since the underground transition, driven by rising domestic coal use in its own power plants, higher renewable energy consumption, and increased by-product credits from silver and lead concentrate sales. It generates its own electricity from 653.80 MW of total captive capacity including thermal, solar, and waste-heat recovery, and has locked in a 530 MW round-the-clock renewable power deal that will push renewables to over 70% of total power needs by 2027.
- India’s dominant supplier, with export reach - the company holds about 74% of India’s primary zinc market and sells to 25 states domestically while exporting to 38 countries, with exports contributing roughly a fifth of turnover. It reaches even the smallest customers through a rupee-linked live pricing platform and delivers zinc and lead in quantities as low as one tonne.
- Value-added products lift realisations - roughly 22% of sales now come from higher-margin products like zinc-aluminium-magnesium alloys for corrosion-resistant steel, special continuous galvanising grade zinc for demanding steelmakers, and EcoZen, Asia’s first low-carbon zinc brand certified at less than one tonne of CO₂ per tonne of metal. A dedicated 30,000-tonne-per-year alloy plant, operated through a subsidiary, supplies die-casting alloys to the automotive and electronics industries.
2. Fertilisers: turning smelter waste into crop nutrition
A 510,000-tonne-per-year DAP and NPK fertiliser plant is being built to consume the sulphuric acid that pours out of the zinc smelters - converting a by-product into a product India imports heavily.
- Built on a by-product stream - the company’s smelting operations generate large volumes of sulphuric acid, and the new plant at Chanderiya in Rajasthan will use that acid to make phosphate fertilisers, transforming a disposal challenge into a saleable commodity.
- Targeting import substitution - India relies on imports for a significant portion of its DAP fertiliser, so the plant is positioned to serve domestic farmers while reducing the country’s external dependence.
- Commissioning is imminent - the project is on track to start production in early Q2 of the current financial year, housed under a wholly-owned subsidiary, Hindustan Zinc Fertilisers Private Limited.
Group structure and partners
Hindustan Zinc is a publicly listed subsidiary of Vedanta Limited, with the Indian government as a significant minority shareholder, and it operates through five wholly-owned subsidiaries that extend its reach into alloys, fertilisers, mineral exploration, and community development.
- Dual-listed with two large shareholders - Vedanta Limited holds 60.71% of the equity and the Government of India holds 27.92%, with the remaining 11.37% traded on the Bombay and National Stock Exchanges; both Vedanta and HZL are separately listed entities.
- Five subsidiaries extend the core - Hindustan Zinc Alloys Private Limited runs the 30,000-tonne alloy plant; Hindustan Zinc Fertilisers Private Limited is building the fertiliser facility; Hindmetal Exploration Services Private Limited hunts for critical and strategic mineral assets; and two foundations manage sports academies and community projects in tribal villages.
- Strategic partnerships lock in customers and power - a long-standing agreement with Tata Steel drives adoption of low-carbon EcoZen zinc for green steel, while a 20-year power purchase agreement with Serentica Renewables secures 530 MW of round-the-clock renewable electricity at a rate below the company’s own thermal cost. The company is also developing India’s first integrated zinc downstream hub - Zinc Park - in Rajasthan jointly with the state industrial development corporation, signing up manufacturers to set up plants with assured raw material supply from HZL.