Leveraging Technology and Advancing Innovation: Hindustan Zinc walking the ESG talk

We presently dwell in a global community that is equally volatile and unpredictable. Innovative market dynamics are emerging as a result of a slew of mega-trends, including fast globalization and technological breakthroughs. In order to thrive in such a setting, it’s imperative for businesses to constantly innovate. Nevertheless, innovation is no more solely for the sake of generating value for organizations. The overall objective of innovation must go far wider, participating in the establishment of a smarter future that serves all of the company’s stakeholders. The cornerstone of Hindustan Zinc’s expansion over the last half a century has been a thorough knowledge of market impulses and market demands, including the aptitude to integrate them into customer-driven offerings utilizing innovations and technology.

The significance of technology is doubled when it is implemented holistically instead of as an individual operation. At Hindustan Zinc, the team has been at the vanguard of implementing the most advanced technologies to establish and strengthen a strategic position in the mining sector, while also improving efficacy and productivity across its operations. One of the most notable achievements has been the successful commissioning of a 3000 KLD zero liquid discharge RO-ZLD plant at the Zinc Smelter Debari. It will recycle 30 Lac litres of water each day. At its Zawar Mines in Rajasthan, Hindustan Zinc has built India’s first ‘Dry Tailing Plant’. The dry tailing system has major advantages, including recirculation of more than 80% of the process water present in tailings, speedier rehabilitation and restoration of the storage site after mine closure, and ensured water re-availability for future usage. The company has also commissioned a 10 MLD Sewage Treatment Plant (STP) facility in Udaipur, and another 5 MLD STP is nearing completion, bringing the total STP capacity built up by it to 60 MLD. This will treat nearly all of Udaipur’s sewage, and the recycled water will be used by its plants, lowering its freshwater use dramatically.

Hindustan Zinc has made notable technological advancements in the area of energy conservation. To achieve their aim of ‘Net Zero’ GHG emissions, it is vital to focus on energy efficiency as well. To that effort, the Zinc Smelter Debari has revamped the Cell House and eliminated current losses through electrolytic cells by successfully replacing 656 concrete cells with poly concrete cells. As a result, the power rating has improved from 6.7 to 7.2, and the electric energy consumption has been reduced from 3616 to 3307 kWh/MT of Zn cathode. Additionally, the turbine refurbishment project is certified as a carbon reduction project by VERRA (the world’s most widely used voluntary GHG program). In the coming year, their captive thermal power plants’ turbines will be revamped, resulting in a decrease of 270,000 tCO2e per year.

Safety isn’t just a set of rules and regulations for Hindustan Zinc’s employees; it’s a way of life. The business places a high value on its employees’ safety and well-being and works to provide the best facilities to achieve this. In 2021, Hindustan Zinc launched a revolutionary InSAR (Interferometric Synthetic Aperture Radar) surveillance technology based on satellites to offer early warning of surface ground movements. It provides mine-scale surface displacement monitoring with great precision. The company’s Rajpura Dariba Mine (RDM) epitomizes this safe working culture by inventing India’s first staircase-style emergency escape route, which is located 708 metres below the earth. In an emergency, the innovative 25-meter-long escape route will guarantee a seamless and speedy rescue operation from the lowest level of RDM, which is located at 232 Mean Reduced Level (MRL).

Hindustan Zinc is consistently on the quest for innovative technologies to address important societal issues, new proactive initiatives to forecast the unpredictable economy and break down roadblocks to a brighter and smarter future. The business has made tremendous headway in leveraging technology and is eager to adopt emerging innovations in the future, such as artificial intelligence (AI) and blockchain capabilities.