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Hindustan Zinc, a Vedanta Group company, plans to achieve a silver production of 500 tonnes (16 million oz) in FY12 with the new 1.5-million-tonnes-a-year mill at silver-rich SK Mine in Rajasthan ramping up and expected to achieve its rated capacity next fiscal. The company's silver production was 179 tonnes in 2010-11.
The company plans to commission a 100,000 tpa lead smelter at Dariba in Rajasthan in the first quarter of this fiscal. Post-expansion, the company's total zinc-lead metal production capacity will increase to 10,64,000 tpa.
Q4 performance
Hindustan Zinc has recorded 43 per cent increase in fourth quarter net profit at Rs 1,771 crore (Rs 1,239 crore) largely due to higher production and better realisations. Its revenue jumped 28 per cent to Rs 3,197 crore (Rs 2,498 crore). The company has announced a dividend of Re 1 per equity share for the fiscal.
The company achieved the highest-ever mined metal production of 231,000 tonnes, up 19 per cent in the fourth quarter. The increase in production was primarily on account of higher contribution from Rampura Agucha and Sindesar Khurd mines, the company said.
Mr Agnivesh Agarwal, Chairman, Hindustan Zinc said, “This year we focused on enhancing the shareholder value by ramping up our production, which led to improvement in growth and profitability. We continue to focus on enhancing value from silver by becoming a leading producer globally.”
Refined silver production was at 50,000 kg in the fourth quarter. Silver realisation was at Rs 218 crore, up 98 per cent in the quarter under review. The zinc metal cost, without royalty, during the quarter increased by five per cent to Rs 35,500 a tonne.
During Q4, the average zinc and lead LME prices were at $2,393 a tonne ($2,288) and $2,288 a tonne ($2,219). The average silver cash settlement price jumped to $31.9 an oz from $16.9 an oz.
Reserves
At of March 31, 2011, the company has a total reserves and resources of 313.2 million tonnes containing 34.7 million tonnes of zinc-lead metal and 885 million ounces of silver.
As at March 31, the company had cash and cash equivalents of Rs 14,965 crore, including Rs 9,332 crore invested in debt mutual funds and Rs 5,555 crore in fixed deposits with banks.
The company's stock on BSE gained 3 per cent to hit a new high of Rs 152 on Thursday.
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