India Company Announces Plan to Expand Operations

Hindustan Zinc Ltd., the largest zinc and lead producer in India, announced that it expects to complete an expansion of its smelters April 2005

The firm is in the midst of raising the capacity of its zinc smelter by 170,000 metric tons  a year from 220,000 metric tons and that of its lead plant by 50,000 metric tons a year from 43,000 metric tons.

In 2001, the Indian government had approved Hindustan Zinc's proposal to set up a 100,000-metric-ton-a-year greenfield zinc smelter in India.

The company had earlier raised its zinc production capacity to 220,000 metric tons a year from 169,000 metric tons by removing bottlenecks and improving efficiency.

Hindustan Zinc is also expanding the capacity of its beneficiation plant in Rajasthan to 3.75 million metric tons of ore a year from two million metric tons and setting up a 150 MW power plant.

The company is expected to produce more than 225,000 metric tons of zinc and 30,000 metric tons of lead in the year to March 2004, the official said. It produced 207,000 metric tons of zinc and 39,000 metric tons of lead last year. Reuters