Thank you, operator, and good evening, ladies and gentlemen. Thank you for joining us today to discuss the second quarter and half year results of FY '27.

In this call, we will refer to our investor presentation, available on our company's website. Please note that today's entire discussion will be covered by the safe harbor clause mentioned on slide two of the presentation.

Today's call is joined by our CEO, Mr. Amarendu Prakash, and our CFO, Mr.

Amit Gupta, who will also be interacting with you during the call. The management will be discussing the operational and financial updates for the quarter, followed by a Q&A session.

Now, I would like to invite Mr. Amarendu Prakash to present the results.

Over to you, sir.

Thank you, Raksha. A very good evening to all of you.

Thank you for joining us today. Happy to report that we are sustaining our strong momentum in the second quarter, delivering solid operational and financial performance while we continue to focus on our strategic priorities.

Our cost competitiveness and disciplined execution has helped us in sustaining this momentum. If I look at how we define our success, of course, safety remains a core measure of our operating performance.

In this quarter, we have recorded zero fatalities across the whole operations. We are committed to achieving net-zero by 2050, as already informed.

We are increasing our renewable energy basket. In this quarter, the renewable energy accounted for 27% of our power consumption, which we intend to take to 35% in the quarters to come.

In one of our subsidiaries, HZAPL, Hindustan Zinc Alloys Private Limited, I'm happy to report that the subsidiary is using 100% renewable power now. We also introduced our first electric crane at Rajpura Dariba complex and first electric cherry picker at Rampura Agucha.

Further, we are entering partnerships with different agencies to continue our ESG drive. We have tied up for high-density plantations at Chanderiya Lead-Zinc Smelter and also entered an MoU to deploy further 30 electric vehicles for material movement.

I'm pleased to share that our ESG reporting suite that is sustainability report, climate action report, and TNFD report, is all available on our website. Similarly, our CSR initiatives continue to deliver meaningful impact.

As a highlight, I would like to inform that we added almost 3,000 Nand Ghars across Rajasthan, thereby taking our overall presence of Nand Ghars in the country to 12,263. Looking at the market environment, India's growth outlook remains strong.

GDP projections are in the range of 6.4% in 2026 and 6.7% in 2027. As we know, this is well above the global growth rate projections of 3% and 3.4%, respectively.

This has been possible in part through the government capital expenditure, which has risen 2.6 times over last six years. In FY '27 also, the government capital expenditure is budgeted at approximately 4.4% of GDP.

Coming to our industry, zinc fundamentals remain strong with 2026 forecasted refined zinc demand is at 13.87 million tonnes, whereas the supply outlook is at 13.69 million tonnes. That means there's almost a 180 kt deficit in the market.

New projects are limited, as we hear, and mine closures and declining grades will mean that over the next decade, we see the markets remaining tight, whereas infrastructure growth, urbanization, electrification indicates an annual demand growth in the market. Silver again is expected to remain in deficit for the sixth consecutive year in 2026.

Overall shortfall is projected at about 1.44 thousand tonnes. The industrial demand of silver is increasing.

As you all know, we have been looking at new tech and new tech markets, but now the world is realizing that old-age minerals and metals are what will actually make this new tech industry feasible. Coming to the operational performance of the company, mined metal production has risen 5% year-on-year.

This is the highest-ever second-quarter output. Similarly, our refined metal production has risen 7% year-on-year.

I'm happy to report that zinc cost of production is better by 29%. Our zinc cost of production in second quarter FY '27 stands at $703 per tonne.

Zinc cost of production for the year we had guided for a projection of $975 to $1,000. However, looking at the current improvements in zinc cost of production, we are revising our COP guidance to $825 to $850 for the full year.

Similarly, saleable silver production has risen 20% year-on-year. This stands at 173 tonnes in this quarter.

This has contributed approximately 45% of first-half profitability, it remains very important to us. Our industry-leading cost position, strong production, and favorable commodity prices have driven a record quarterly financial performance.

Our EBITDA stands at 9,285 crores, and the net profit is at a record level of 6,412 crores. Going forward, our growth projects remain on track.

Engineering and procurement for the 250 ktpa integrated zinc expansion is almost complete, and mine development is underway. Similarly, the 10 million tonnes per annum tailing reprocessing plant is also progressing as per plan.

Looking ahead, we remain focused on translating this momentum into sustained performance. For this, we'll have a very disciplined execution of our expansion projects, further strengthen our cost leadership, and we would like to unlock greater value from our resources.

Our growth is AI-driven and technology-led. We focus on AI in a big way, not just in implementing use cases of AI, but also making our process AI-native.

Our strong start to FY '27 reinforces our confidence in the strategy ahead. Backed by our integrated business model and favorable structural demand trends, Hindustan Zinc is well-positioned to accelerate its 2x growth journey.

With this, I now hand over to Amit, our CFO, for an update on the financial performance.

Thank you, Mr. Prakash.

Good evening, everyone. The global business environment remains challenging amid escalating geopolitical tension, energy and trade disruption, changing tariff policies, and divergent regional growth trends.

While these dynamics are likely to drive near-term volatility across inflation, currencies, and financial markets, India remains a key growth driver supported by resilient domestic consumption and sustained investment in infrastructure and manufacturing. In this environment, commodity prices will continue to be influenced by geopolitical developments, energy costs, monetary policies, currency movement, and global growth trends.

Energy market disruption have heightened volatility, while supply constraints and low inventory have provided support to zinc price, and persistent supply deficit has remained favorable for silver. Despite near-term uncertainties, the medium-term to long-term outlook for our key metals remains positive.

Our integrated business model, competitive cost structure, prudent capital allocation, and robust balance sheet position us well to navigate market volatility, pursue strategic growth opportunities, and sustain value creation across commodity cycles. Our strong momentum continued in this second quarter, with quarterly EBITDA surpassing 9,000 crore for the first time.

This was driven by consistent execution, benefits from last year debottlenecking projects, the commissioning of additional roaster, and cost of production. Our precious metal portfolio also continues to contribute meaningfully to our profitability.

During the quarter, we delivered revenue from operations of 15,093 crore, up 77% year-on-year. This growth was led by higher metal production and supportive commodity price, with better byproduct realization, lead concentrate sale, and a stronger dollar providing additional upside.

The combination of strong revenue growth and operating leverage translated into highest-ever quarterly EBITDA of 9,285 crore, up 108% year-on-year, with an industry-leading margin of 62%. Profitability was further strengthened by quarterly zinc cost of production at $703 per tonne, excluding royalty, since underground transition.

In addition, we monetized 10 kt of lead concentrate during the quarter, containing approximately 10 tonne of silver and 6,000 tonne of lead. Together, stronger revenue and margins drove record quarterly net profit of 6,412 crore, up 142% year-on-year.

This strong performance, together with robust quarterly results, translated into best-ever first-half financial performance. Our half-year revenue from operations reached at 28,840 crore, up 77% year-on-year, while EBITDA grew 108% to 17,359 crore, supported by lower zinc cost of production, excluding royalty, $776 per tonne.

Net profit rose to a record of 11,881 crore, up 143% year-on-year, reaffirming the resilience of our business model and strong cash generation capability. Generating 6,389 crore of free cash flow before growth CapEx during the quarter highlights the strength of our underlying cash flows, cost competitiveness, and prudent financial management.

This strong cash generation provides a capacity to advance our strategic expansion plans while preserving financial discipline and supporting sustainable long-term value creation. We closed the quarter with net cash balance of 11,268 crore, reinforcing our financial strength and providing ample headroom to capitalize on growth opportunities.

Our robust balance sheet and disciplined capital allocation approach enable us to balance investment in future growth with attractive shareholder returns. In first half of the year, we delivered 15% total shareholder return, including ₹64 per share in capital appreciation and ₹11 dividend.

This placed Hindustan Zinc among the top five NIFTY metal companies and top 40 NIFTY 100 companies by market capitalization at September end. Our returns were 12 times the NIFTY 50 and 4 times the NIFTY 100, reinforcing the commitment to long-term value creation.

Our contribution to India's economic growth remains an integral part of our value creation philosophy. During the first half of the year, Hindustan Zinc contributed more than 13,000 crore to the national exchequer through taxes, royalties, duties, and other statutory levies, reinforcing our role as a responsible corporate citizen and a meaningful contribution to India's economic development.

Looking ahead, we remain focused on strengthening our cost leadership, advancing our capacity expansion plan, and maintaining a strong balance sheet to support consistent cash generation and attractive shareholder returns. With our 2x growth ambition, integrated operating model, and favorable long-term demand prospects for zinc and silver, we are well positioned to capitalize on emerging opportunities and deliver sustainable long-term value for our stakeholders.

With that, I would like to thank all the shareholders for their continued trust and support. I will now hand it over to the operator for Q&A session.

Thank you.

Good afternoon, sir, and congratulations on a very good set of numbers. The first question was on the hedging.

If you could just share what quantity and hedges that we have and just break it down over the quarters for the rest of the quarters, that would be helpful.

At this point of time, for the quarter three, we have a 40 kt of zinc which is hedge and 36 kt of zinc for quarter four hedged at the rate of 3,476 for quarter three and 3,698 for quarter four. We have a 8 tonne of silver also, which is only in quarter three.

What rate?

At a rate of $68 per ounce.

Okay. Thank you for that.

Just on the second question was on the cost. We are significantly below what we started with, the cost guidance of $975 to $1,000 per tonne.

How have sulfuric acid prices, have they remained strong? Can there be a positive surprise to our revised guidance of $825 to $850 going ahead?

You're right. From the cost point of view, we have a positive surprise on the byproduct realization, which is sulfuric, and there are cost escalations also because of the geopolitical issues, so that is impacting us almost by $50.

In totality, we are delivering the cost. For the quarter two, we are believing that we will be in the broadly in the same range, delivering the overall cost estimate for the year at $825 to $850.

Sure, sir. Thank you.

That's it from me.

Yes, hi, sir. Thanks for the opportunity and congratulation on great set of numbers.

Am I audible properly?

Hello? Yeah.

I had just two questions. One is how much was your domestic coal usage in percentage for second quarter?

It's a 32%, friend.

Okay. Sir, on CapEx front, how much was the CapEx in Q2, and out of that, how much was sustenance CapEx, and how much was growth CapEx?

Just bifurcation.

During the quarter, we have spent around 1,200 crore on sustaining CapEx and around 700 crore on the growth CapEx.

Okay. Sir, what is the whole year outlook on this?

How much will be the sustenance and growth? Whole-year

outlook we are on the same line, the way we have guided. The whole-year outlook is in the range of 5,000 crore only.

With the expansion which we are expecting in quarter three and four, we'll be able to spend more during those quarters, typically.

Sir. Thank you, sir.

I will join in the queue. Thank you.

Good afternoon, sir. Congratulation on really good set of numbers.

Sir, my question is, do we have any update on the new critical mineral blocks that we have? Hello, am I audible?

The critical mineral blocks, as

Yes. Can you hear us?

Yeah. Okay.

The four critical blocks that we have are exploration blocks. Basically, three out of those four are exploration blocks.

We have a guidance of we'll be finishing our exploration program in the third quarter of FY '29. That will be the time when we'll know the exact ore body position and resources available there.

Once we conclude this, then we can come back with the production plan and all our business. One, the Ghattihosahalli REE block in Karnataka, it is a mining lease and we have executed that mining lease, and then we will be going ahead.

It will take, for some indication of the resources and the business plan, in two, three years.

Okay. Thank you, sir.

Can you also tell me how much was the ore grade in the second quarter?

Around 6. 7.

7.6% ore grade.

Okay. Thank you so much, sir.

Hi, good afternoon. Thank you.

Sir, we sold lead concentrate in the second quarter as well. Could you indicate what was the revenue and margins like for concentrate sale in this quarter?

What is your plan for the rest of the year?

During this quarter, we have sold 10 kt of concentrate, which consists of 10 tonne of silver and 6,000 tonne of lead. Overall revenue generated is 300 crores, and out of this, profits created out of 155 crores.

In terms of plans, we don't have as such any plan for the concentrate. We take a call based on the business decision, whether we have a more concentrate in place as compared to our smelter capacity, then only we take this call.

Understood. Lastly, any change or update on the silver production guidance for FY '27, since we've done 321 tonnes in the first half?

We are confident we will be able to deliver our guidance of 680. If you see in the H1, we have sold 20 kt of concentrate, which includes 20 tonne of silver as well.

Put together we have done 340, you can assume, in H1. H2, we are confident we will be able to deliver as per the guidance.

For FY '28, are we at 730, 750 kind of a number?

We hope to do that. We have some of the debottlenecking projects in the pipeline.

We'll be finalizing the numbers towards the end of this.

Okay. Thank you, sir.

That's it from my side.

Good evening. Thanks for the chance.

Sir, first question, is it possible to share the COP number without the sulfuric acid credits, just to get a better sense on what's happening on overall other cost? Also, if you could share sulfuric acid revenue contribution, which we account for, say, maybe in 2Q or 1H FY '27?

Sulfuric is a byproduct. If you see in this business, we have a multiple byproducts.

Although sulfuric prices are high, so that's why we can say that we have a significant benefit in our COP of sulfuric acid, but we are giving a COP number as a overall number only. We are not anticipating any guidance on the sulfuric acid because it is absolutely dependent upon the market, and we sell everything on auction basis.

Okay.

Okay. Is it possible to share last year, what was the contribution?

Was it around 1,500 odd crores in revenue?

Around 1,000 to 1,200, we can say.

Okay. Okay.

This year, whatever is the first-half run rate, is it higher, low, or maybe how much higher versus last year? Any color on that, sir?

Again, I'm saying we are not giving any guidance or any number on the sulfuric acid because it's a byproduct for us, and we sell it in a auction price. Whatever is a market price, we get it during that period.

There is no such guidance on sulfuric.

Understood. Understood.

All right. That's the only question I had.

Thanks, and all the best.

Thank you, operator, and thank you, all, for joining today's call. Should you have any further questions or require additional information, please feel free to reach out to the Investor Relations team.

Thank you, and have a great day.