Zinc – Lead
 |
DescriptionVedanta is the world’s second largest integrated Zinc-Lead producer. Zinc and Lead operations include various mines and smelting facilities in India. 272 million tonnes of Reserves and Resources of ore. |
Key locations
|
Smelters and RefineryChanderiya |
The performance of our Zinc business in FY 2009 is set out in the table below.
| (in US$ millions, except as stated) | FY 2009 | FY 2008 | % change | ||
| Production volumes – Zinc (in kt) | |||||
| Mined metal content | 651 | 551 | 18.1 | ||
| Refined metal | 552 | 426 | 29.6 | ||
| Production volumes – Lead (in kt) | |||||
| Mined metal content | 84 | 78 | 7.7 | ||
| Refined metal | 60 | 58 | 3.5 | ||
| Production volumes – Saleable silver (in m. oz) | 3.38 | 2.58 | 31.0 | ||
| Sale of commercial power, including wind power (in million units) | 297 | 112 | 165.2 | ||
| Average LME zinc cash settlement prices (US$ per tonne) | 1,563 | 2,992 | (47.8) | ||
| Average LME lead cash settlement prices (US$ per tonne) | 1,660 | 2,875 | (42.3) | ||
| Average exchange rate (INR per US$) | 45.91 | 40.24 | 14.1 | ||
| Unit costs | |||||
| Zinc (US$ per tonne) | 710 | 884 | (19.7) | ||
| Zinc (INR per tonne) | 32,621 | 35,590 | (8.3) | ||
| Zinc excluding royalties (US$ per tonne) | 609 | 686 | (11.2) | ||
| Zinc excluding royalties (INR per tonne) | 27,973 | 27,625 | 1.3 | ||
| Revenue | 1209.1 | 1,941.4 | (37.7) | ||
| EBITDA | 605.4 | 1,380.1 | (56.1) | ||
| EBITDA margin | 50.1% | 71.1% | – | ||
| Operating profit | 548.3 | 1,333.0 | (58.9) | ||
Production Performance
Mined metal production for zinc and lead from all our mines was 735,000 tonnes in FY 2009, up 16.9% over FY 2008, primarily as a result of commissioning of the stream III concentrator at the Rampura Agucha mine.
We delivered record refined zinc metal production in FY 2009 of 552,000 tonnes, up 29.6% compared with FY 2008. Production was higher primarily on account of commissioning the new zinc smelter at Chanderiya in December 2007 and the 88 ktpa de-bottlenecking project. The production of lead during FY 2009 was 60,000 tonnes, up 3.5% compared with FY 2008.
Production of saleable silver in FY 2009 was our highest ever at 3.38 million troy ounces, up 31% compared with FY 2008.
Unit Costs
Unit costs of production in FY 2009 excluding royalties were lower at US$609 per tonne (INR 27,973 per tonne) compared with US$686 per tonne (INR 27,625 per tonne) in FY 2008. Cost performance in Indian rupee terms during the year was impacted by higher input costs, benefit of increased volumes, volatile acid credits and higher coal cost used for captive power plant. The underlying operating performance showed an improving trend with exit CoP (excluding royalties) in March 2009 of US$593 per tonne (INR 30,380 per tonne) despite lower by-product credits.
