Hindustan Zinc, a Vedanta Group firm that trades in zinc, lead and silver, has paid Rs 187.19 crore as its highest interim dividend to the government.
"The dividend by Hindustan Zinc to the government has gone almost four times higher in the last four years, from Rs 49.92 crore in 2008-09 ... To Rs 187.19 crore in H1 2011-12," the company said in a statement today.
The cheque was presented to Mines Minister Dinsha Patel by Hindustan Zinc's Chief Operating Officer Akhilesh Joshi.
The decision of declaring 75% dividend, that is Rs 1.50 per equity share of Rs 2 each, was taken in recently concluded Board of Directors meeting of the Vedanta Group company.
Since disinvestment in 2002, Hindustan Zinc has invested about Rs 12,000 crore for executing three large expansion projects in Rajasthan to grow capacities 5-fold.
The expansion projects included setting up smelting plants at Chanderiya and Dariba; mine expansions at Rampura Agucha and Sindesar Khurd; setting up power plants at Chanderiya, Zawar and Dariba; and wind power generation farms at Rajasthan, Karnataka, Gujarat, Tamil Nadu and Maharashtra.
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Billionaire Anil Agarwal-led Sterlite Group owns the major chunk of Hindustan Zinc, after the Government divested its majority stake in the company in April 2002.
Sterlite now owns about 65% in Hindustan Zinc, while Indian government owns 29.53% equity stake.
The company claims it is the world's largest integrated producer of zinc and its mine at Rampura Agucha is the largest zinc producer. The mine at Sindesar Khurd is silver-rich and Smelting complex at Chanderiya is one of the largest single location zinc smelting complex in the world.
Hindustan Zinc’s overall ore production capacity stands at 9.75 million tonne per annum (MTPA), zinc production capacity at 879,000 TPA and lead output at 185,000 TPA.