Davos 2025: Vedanta 2.0 Committed To Critical Minerals, Says Hindustan Zinc's Priya Agarwal Hebbar
Hindustan Zinc has emerged as the preferred bidder for six critical mineral blocks, aligning with the Government of India's push for domestic resource development.
Hindustan Zinc Ltd. is eyeing to ride the clean energy transition wave as the miner looks to improve its share in the domestically produced critical minerals space, company Chairperson Priya Agarwal Hebbar told NDTV Profit on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum 2025 at Davos, Switzerland.
"Vedanta 2.0 is going to be committed to transition metals, critical minerals, energy, and technology," Agarwal Hebbar said. "Davos is the right place to get the understanding of what the world needs, and we are here to support that in a new avatar."
Currently, Hindustan Zinc, a Vedanta Ltd. subsidiary, specialises in the exploration, mining, and smelting of zinc, lead, and other non-ferrous metals. The company's products include zinc ore, lead-zinc concentrate, zinc metal, lead metal, cadmium metal, silver metal, and sulphuric acid.
However, Agarwal Hebbar said that as the world moves towards energy transition in a more meaningful way, a lot of Hindustan Zinc's cash flows will be targeted towards capex investments and expanding the company's portfolio into the more "futuristic areas."
Agarwal Hebbar, daughter of Vedanta Resources founder and billionaire Anil Agarwal, believes India to be in a sweet spot as the country has not fully started exploring its reserves of necessary critical minerals.
"Everyone is talking about critical minerals and transition metals. The World Bank suggests we need mining investments worth $1.7 trillion for the energy transition to happen, so the eyes are on the industry," she said.
Commenting on the Government of India's push for critical minerals through what she called "aggressively auctioning," Agarwal Hebbar said, "We have emerged as the preferred bidders in six critical blocks. We are now focusing our energies more on critical minerals."
Hindustan Zinc is also working towards doubling its capacity to 2 million tonnes, she said. "Vedanta's aluminium, oil, and gas segments are also working towards doubling capacity."
