KEY STATISTICS FY2026
Rampura Agucha Mine (RAM), an ISO 9001, ISO 14001, OHSAS 18001, and SA-8000 certified mine, located in Bhilwara, Rajasthan, is the world’s largest zinc-producing mine and is the operational cornerstone of Hindustan Zinc’s production base. It is continually scaling its operations, infrastructure, technological superiority, sustainability focus, and safety credentials to set a global benchmark.
Operational and Strategic Developments
Ramping productivity and throughput
- Achieved first-ever underground internal waste dumping with c.140 kt waste dumped directly into the open stopes, eliminating surface haulage costs
- Enhanced safe and efficient working conditions at deeper levels by:
- Commissioning a 27 MW refrigeration plant that delivers 400 m3/sec of cool air
- Developing a 2 km vertical development to strengthen the ventilation network reticulation
- Established three major pumping stations (at -355 mRL, -505 mRL, and -580 mRL) to achieve mine dewatering capacity up to 26,000 m3/day
- Commissioned three level-to-level ore passes (from -505 mRL to -530 mRL and -455 mRL to -480 mRL) to decongest traffic in active levels
- Enhanced skip payload from 20 MT to 22 MT, increasing throughput from 630 TPH to 660 TPH, while optimising power consumption
- Optimised drill factor from 8.2 MT/m to 8.5 MT/m through stope drill design optimisation
- Developments at Stream-1
- Enhanced lead cleaner capacity through an indigenously developed flotation cell to increase retention time, improving lead and silver recovery by c.1%
- Expanded multi-stream analyser (MSA) for enhanced operational monitoring, and refurbished zinc filter (PF-980), resulting in additional mined output of 300 MT of lead and 0.5 MT of silver
Technology and digital integration
- Deployed computer vision-based rock fragmentation and foreign material detection to enable real-time ore quality monitoring, reduce downstream damage risk, and improve crushing efficiency
- Installed 86 internet of things (IoT) sensors across stream 1, 2, and 3 mills and blower mills for real-time velocity and temperature monitoring
- Integrated RIPIK.AI with the distributed control system (DCS) for AI-powered optimisation in consumables usage; model fine-tuning is currently in progress
Safety and environmental developments
- Reused 1,08,002 m3 of tailings dam water (up 13% vs FY2025) in the mill and recycled 4,47,510 m3 of treated water from the water treatment plant, reducing fresh water withdrawal
- Reduced carbon footprint by 962 tCO2e through a 0.23 kWh/tonne reduction in the mill’s specific power consumption
- 5.24x water positive
Rampura Agucha Mine has been conferred the Certificate of Recognition, Rajasthan Energy Conservation Award 2023 and 2024 by the Department of Energy, Government of Rajasthan
Enabling Hindustan Zinc’s 2x Growth Plan
Actions planned
- Implementing India’s first zinc tailings reprocessing plant of 10 Mtpa feed capacity
- Onboarding a best-in-class business partner for deeper mine development and boosting production efficiency
- Deploying a filtered tailing plant and a wet tailings storage facility for efficient tailings management
- Installing a raise-bore hoisting shaft to enhance underground material handling
- Developing power and water reservoirs to strengthen supporting infrastructure
Targeted ore production capacity by FY2029, up from 5.5 Mtpa