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Hindustan Zinc, part of billionaire Anil Agarwal-owned Vedanta Group, has reported 15 per cent increase in its September quarter net profit at Rs 2,018 crore, against Rs 1,815 crore logged in same period last year, largely due to lower tax outgo.
The revenue from operation was down 5 per cent at Rs 4,461 crore (Rs 4,707 crore), due to lower production and less realisation across metals including zinc, lead and silver.
The tax expense fell sharply to just Rs 6 crore (Rs 459 crore) as the company wrote back deferred tax of Rs 253 crore.
The revenue from the zinc business was down 3 per cent at Rs 3,051 crore (Rs 3,132 crore), while that of lead and silver dipped 14 per cent and 4 per cent respectively to Rs 672 crore (Rs 794 crore) and Rs 577 crore (Rs 599 crore). The refined zinc output was up marginally by 2 per cent at 166,000 tonnes, while that of lead and silver plunged 15 per cent and 22 per cent to Rs 44 and Rs 134 crore.
Mined metal production at 2.19 lakh tonnes was down 6 per cent due to lower grades at Sindesar Khurd mine, partly offset by higher ore production.
The company’s EBITDA for the quarter was down 8 per cent at Rs 2,120 crore on account of lower revenue from operations.
Expansion mode
Hind Zinc expects ongoing expansion projects to be completed and mined metal production to touch 1.2 million tonnes per annum in second half of this fiscal. The production shaft at Sindesar Khurd, which was commissioned earlier, is ramped up with associated conveyor and automation system in production.
At Rampura Agucha, the shaft project is expected to be completed in the December quarter.
At Zawar, India’s first-ever dry tail stacking plant was commissioned during the quarter. Additionally, the two back fill plants are on track to be commissioned in the December quarter, enabling the mining of the left out high-grade ore in old pillars, the company said.
At Rajpura Dariba, the existing production shaft capacity is being upgraded from 0.7 to 1.3 mtpa to de-bottleneck the mine, and it is expected to completed in the March quarter.
As of the September quarter, Hind Zinc’s cash and cash equivalents was Rs 19,628 crore, against Rs 16,952 crore as of March-end.
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