Hindustan Zinc Limited, a Vedanta Group enterprise and the world’s largest integrated zinc producer, has secured Board approval for India’s first zinc tailings reprocessing facility at Rampura Agucha in Rajasthan.
Designed to recover residual zinc and silver from historic mine tailings, the plant will convert industrial by-products into valuable metals while advancing the company’s sustainability and resource efficiency goals.
The facility, set to process 10 million tones of tailings annually, represents a planned investment of ₹3,823 crore, with completion expected within 28 months. Rampura Agucha, one of the world’s largest underground zinc mines, provides the ideal site for the project, which aligns with Hindustan Zinc’s broader strategy to double refined metal output and optimize the use of previously processed material.
The initiative follows a series of capacity expansion plans totaling nearly ₹12,000 crore, including a 250 KTPA increase in refined metal output and upgrades to mining and milling infrastructure across multiple sites. Rising domestic and global zinc demand, driven by infrastructure development and the steel sector, underscores the strategic timing of these investments.
Hindustan Zinc’s sustainability credentials reinforce the project’s relevance. The company has been recognized as the most sustainable metals and mining company globally for the second consecutive year by the S&P Global Corporate Sustainability Assessment (2024) and was the first Indian metals producer to have 1.5°C-aligned emissions targets approved by the Science Based Targets initiative (SBTi). In FY25, it achieved a 15% reduction in emissions intensity from 2020 levels while expanding output.
Further innovations include EcoZen, Asia’s first low-carbon zinc produced entirely with renewable energy, and an Environmental Product Declaration (EPD)-certified zinc portfolio to enhance transparency in climate reporting. Hindustan Zinc also became the first Indian company to join the International Council on Mining and Metals (ICMM) in 2025, reflecting its alignment with global ESG standards and 40 performance expectations.
