At Hindustan Zinc, we have identified health and safety as critical to our value proposition. We remain committed to the continual strengthening of our health and safety metrics for our own employees as well as our business partners and the communities around which we operate.

Our Vision Achieving ‘Zero Harm’ to people with the belief that all workplace injuries are preventable

Our Health & Safety Focus

• As a responsible corporate, we remain focussed on assuring the Health, Safety and Environment (HSE) of our people and society
• We continue to move forward proactively on our safety excellence journey – Aarohan, as part of our safety system
• Safety standards and procedures are governed by our apex body, which is the corporate occupational health and safety council chaired by the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) and leaders from all verticals
• We are continuously building on safety culture transformation, capacity building and process safety management as the three safety pillars of the organisation

Our Strategic Priorities

The Hindustan Zinc leadership continues to work towards providing a safe workplace for all, ensuring a culture of ‘zero harm’ for all employees entering the premises. It is therefore extremely tragic that despite our best efforts to provide complete safety, we lost six colleagues of our business partners and one of our own employees during the year in work-related incidents at our managed operations.

A thorough investigation was conducted to identify the causes of these incidents and to share the lessons learned across Hindustan Zinc, to prevent similar incidents in the future.

Actions taken immediately after the safety incident are as follows:

• Developed Community of Practice: Established a mechanism to review all prevailing civil and mechanical structures; a third party was hired to monitor the thickness of all tanks
• Residual life assessment and finite element analysis for all sulphuric acid storage tanks

Performance & Commitment

Our Safety Governance Structure

With the objective of ensuring the complete safety of our people, we had embarked on our safety excellence journey ‘Aarohan’ in 2013. We continue to progress on this journey through multiple initiatives, supported by our robust safety governance structure.

Our corporate occupational health and safety council provides the overall direction to the organisation’s safety management system. The council is chaired by the CEO, with the Chief HSE & Sustainability Officer as secretary, Head Safety as a convenor and senior leaders as its members.

To assist the council in carrying out its primary objective of policy and standards development, as well as resource deployment, we have in place ten corporate subcommittees and eight zone apex committees. These also provide the strategic safety roadmap for the organisation. The safety sub-committees are tasked with establishing various safety systems, standards, rules and procedures, in addition to building a positive safety culture, conducting quality investigations, providing training and introducing innovations, process safety, workplace hygiene and business partner selection, in order to help the organisation achieve its goal of zero harm.

Initiatives Undertaken During FY 2022-23

Critical Risk Management (Vihan)

Vihan is a Sanskrit word for dawn. Dawn brings light into the world. Similarly, our critical risk management programme – Vihan, is an initiative to enlighten everyone at Hindustan Zinc about the critical risks. The programme focusses on identification of the early warning signs and implementation of critical controls. Developing an attitude of safety across the organisation requires observing safety at every step. To avoid fatalities and catastrophic incidents in the organisation, we have launched controls for four critical risks i.e., fall of ground (FOG), fall of person/object from height (WAH), vehicle pedestrian interaction (VPI) and entanglement. Through this drive, we want to ensure that all identified critical controls are monitored and systems are in place to achieve the vision of zero harm.

Safety Pause

Safety Pause was conducted across all our operational units under the theme ‘stop work if it’s not safe’. During this connect, all recent safety incidents that had occurred across the Group were discussed and key learnings were shared. The programme was organised by business partners in all the three shifts, including the night shift.

Emergency Response Training on Disaster Management

• 10 days of capacity building training programme on disaster management conducted by National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) emergency response at Zawar location; 27 trainees across the Group participated and benefitted
• Training included medical first responder, collapsed structure search and rescue, fire management, chemical and gas disaster management emergencies, etc.

Tele-Remote Operations at SKM

The launch of production drill rigs at SKM have led to improved safety, with laser protection for safe operations. The multiple pan-tilt-zoom (PTZ) cameras at these drill rigs provide good visibility.

Benefit

• Increased productivity, safety and cost efficiency
• Additional 6.5 km drilling/month
• Operation from surface control room
• Multiple PTZ type cameras for good visibility
• Laser protection for safe operations

Conversion of UG Water Sprinkler to Multi-Purpose Fire Water Tender

To improve fire safety in the underground (UG) mines, the old water sprinkling equipment of the fleet has been converted to a multi-purpose fire water tender with the addition of several new features:

• Range of ~100 metres
• Remote control foam unit monitor – from 100 metres foam generating unit which can be operated remotely from any fire source at 180° horizontally and vertically (H&V)
• Thermal imaging camera for dense smoke areas with zero visibility in UG mines
• Firefighting at a high-speed range of 950-2,900 litres per minute of water mixed with foam, thereby dousing any major fire within 5-10 minutes
• Suction facility from any UG sumps
• Crash tender facility allows the rescue team to operate everything from inside the cabin without having to come out of the operator’s cabin

Deploying Underground Drones

The use of drones in UG mines for surveying inside the open stope has helped with real-time monitoring of the stope. The survey accuracy is higher with a drone than the conventional Cavity Monitoring System (CMS) used in mines. A drone is easy to access and utilise in the open stope. The drone survey is based on Lidar technology, which gives accuracy in 3D modelling. Further, a drone is safer and helps us in taking timely decisions with agility.

Underground Training Gallery

Hindustan Zinc has developed India’s first UG practicalcum-digitised training gallery at the Rampura Agucha Mine (RAM). To ensure successful commissioning of the project, the wi-fi network was extended to the training site so that employees working UG could connect from within the mine to the rest of the world. A model development face and various standards of UG key performance indicators were prepared and displayed at the training site. The trainees could access all training documents through the wi-fi facility.

Fall of Ground (FOG) Light

FOG light has been installed at Zawarmala and Baroi to measure the movement in the layered rock, triggered by changes in its colour. A displacement of 2.5 mm causes the rock’s colour to change to red.

Collision Avoidance System and Personnel Tracking

A collision avoidance system and personnel tracking systems introduced in RAM to enhance people safety.

Digitisation Enhancing Safety

V-Unified is a single platform for HSE management across the Group and has deployed the V-Unified (Enablon) software to launch data management, observation, incident management and audit management modules for improving the visibility of information through an intelligent dashboard. This helped us in effectively assessing the environment, economic and social impact of incidents and provide personalised dashboard and reports that can directly be exported and shared in the desired format.

Additionally, we conducted trainings through virtual reality-based modules and simulator training to augment safety during the year.

Virtual Reality-Based Ground Control Management Simulator for Jumbo Operator

RAM’s unique virtual reality-based simulator training for jumbo operators provides a smooth virtual walkthrough for them. It familiarises them with the process of performing Take-5 (Stop, Look, Assess, Manage, Safely) for each step related to drilling. It involves three operators performing all cycles/modules included in development face, i.e., mechanical scaling, wire mesh installation, rock bolt installation and face drilling, as per Hindustan Zinc’s standard operation procedures (SOPs) on mechanised development. It allows operators to practice in different scenarios and critical situations, thus serving to not only improve performance but also enhance safety and productivity. It will also increase the compliance with ground support and increase the operator’s efficiency with ideal blast cycle time. Post completion of all the four modules, the operator performance report shall be generated for analysis.

This simulator has great business impact as jumbo/boomer operators can enhance their operating skills, preventing serious potential incidents by performing on ground.

Occupational Health Management

Hindustan Zinc’s unwavering focus on employee safety spans prevention of occupational diseases and nurturance of a hygienic working environment. We have undertaken several measures to promote a healthier lifestyle among our people as we believe this increases productivity, reduces absenteeism and enhances retention. We have adopted state-of-the-art technology and lifestyle management trainings for our employees. We also regularly monitor and control their exposure to hazardous substances.

Occupational health centres at all our locations conduct regular health examination of both permanent and contractual employees. A centralised health management system coordinates with employees on patient registration, care and discharge. On-site medical professionals monitor employees’ occupational exposure limits, besides conducting their pre-employment medical check-up, periodic medical check-ups, etc.

(During FY 2022-23)

Ensuring Industrial Hygiene

Last year, the Company partnered with a globally recognised industrial hygiene service firm, to develop a sustainable industrial hygiene programme. The objective was to reduce potential health risks by recognising, evaluating and controlling occupational health hazards and occupational exposures.

Key Initiatives Undertaken During FY 2022-23

• Installation of robot for automatic feed port cleaning at Dariba Smelting Complex (DSC)
• Reduction in fugitive emissions from charging chute furnace, crusher building, sinter building in Chanderiya Lead-Zinc Smelter (CLZS) Hydro-2 and Pyro plants by applying innovative solutions
• Installation of lime silo with dense phase conveying system in effluent treatment plant (ETP), Pyro eliminating employee exposure
• Elimination of zinc dust by converting the same into slurry and pumping back in purification launders instead of collecting in jumbo bags
• Dust suppression in CLZS captive power plant (CPP) by installing fogger and water sprinkler