CIMIC Group says it will earn about A$400 million (US$275 million) from India’s first zinc tailings recycling facility in the country’s west.
Group units Sedgman and Leighton Asia have been awarded separate contracts by Hindustan Zinc to provide engineering, procurement and construction services for a 10 million tonnes per annum zinc tailings recycling facility at Hindustan Zinc’s Rampura Agucha mine site in Rajasthan.
The work is expected to take about 28 months.
Part of India’s Vedanta Group, Hindustan Zinc says it is the world’s largest integrated zinc producer and a top-five silver producer. It recently became India’s first member of the International Council on Mining and Metals (ICMM).
“India’s next phase of industrial growth will be defined not just by how much we mine but by how intelligently we use what we already have,” Hindustan Zinc CEO Arun Misra said,
“This project represents a fundamental shift in mining, from extraction to optimisation and from linear consumption to circular value creation.
“By establishing India’s first zinc tailings recycling facility at global scale Hindustan Zinc is creating a blueprint for how legacy resources can be re-engineered into future supply, strengthening the nation’s critical minerals security.
“Our collaboration with Sedgman’s global minerals processing expertise and Leighton Asia’s on-ground infrastructure execution brings together the best of technology and delivery to set new benchmarks for responsible mining.”
Hindustan Zinc produced 826,812 tonnes of zinc worth about US$2.6 billion last year, as well as significant quantities of lead and silver. The company says it has a plan to double current production.
It says it was ranked as “the world’s most sustainable metals and mining company”, based on a S&P Global Corporate Sustainability Assessment, in 2025 for the third year in a row. It launched EcoZen, Asia’s first “green zinc” brand, and claims its zinc carbon footprint of less than one tonne of CO2 equivalent per tonne of zinc produced is about 75% lower than the global average.
