The African nation of Zambia has sought India’s cooperation in the field of zinc and other nonferrous metal mining and production.

Mr Guy Scott VP of Zambia who was on a visit to India recently, expressed his nation’s wish to strike a deal on this front with India. Mr Scott also visited the Hindustan Zinc Limited plant owned by the Vedanta Group in India’s central state of Rajasthan during his 2 day visit.

Hindustan Zinc is one of the world’s largest integrated zinc producers. The company is producing approximately 1.4 million tonnes of products every year.

During his interaction with the senior management of Hindustan Zinc Mr Scott expressed satisfaction on having seen the world’s largest integrated zinc producer. The significance of the visit was not lost on analysts here. Vedanta Resources has copper operations through Konkola Copper Mine in Zambia. The company operates two mines at Nchanga, made up of an underground mine and four open pits. KCM is targeting production of 400,000 tonnes per year of copper. Vedanta holds about 79.4% shares in the company.

The Zambian delegation also visited the Rampura Agucha zinc mine in Bhilwara, Rajasthan. This mine has ore production capacity of 6.15 million tonnes annually.

According to the International Lead & Zinc Study Group, global supply of zinc was expected to outstrip demand by 293,000 tonnes in 2013 compared to a 153,000-ton surplus in 2012.

Demand from China, India and Brazil was likely to play a big role in determining the outlook for the base metal. Zinc demand was also projected to grow in India in 2013 to 2014. For 2012 to 2013 demand was pegged at 600,000 tonnes. The Vedanta Group had a few years ago acquired the Government of India’s majority stake in HZL. Later, its efforts to buy out the residual stake of 29.54% ran into problems and the move is still in limbo.

HZL now finds itself in the middle of a new mess after it had asked employees of its Vishakhapatnam plant to move to the plant in Rajasthan, as the former was making losses. HZL’s stated view was that since zinc metal production in the Vishakhapatnam facility had been stopped for the last year or so the company had decided to transfer employees to other operational units in Rajasthan.