zinc-smelter-debari-banner-image

Zinc Smelter Debari

Overview

Zinc Smelter Debari is a Hydrometallurgical zinc smelter situated at Debari, about 13 kms from Udaipur, in Rajasthan, India. The primary product of Debari is High Grade (HG) zinc and it also recovers cadmium as by-product. The smelter has zinc production capacity of 92,000 MT per annum. In the year ended March 2020, it produced 62,817 MT of zinc.

Key Facts

  • Location : 13 kms north of Udaipur, Rajasthan,
  • India Technology : Roast Leach Electro-winning Technology
  • Products : High Grade (HG) zinc
  • Annual Production Capacity : zinc 92,000 tonnes per annum
  • Certifications : ISO 9001:2008, ISO 14001:2004, OHSAS 18001:2007, SA 8000:2008 & 5S

Background Information

Zinc Smelter Debari was commissioned in the year 1968 with an initial production capacity of 18,000 tonnes per annum of zinc. In the past several years the capacity of the smelter has been expanded five folds to its current production capacity of 92,000 tonnes per annum of zinc. Zinc Smelter Debari employs Roast Leach Electro-winning Technology at its Hydro metallurgical zinc smelter. The plant has three roasting facilities, leaching and purification section, electrolysis and melting and casting sections. It produces surplus calcine, an intermediate product, which is supplied to the rest of the Hydro metallurgical zinc smelters.

Zinc Smelter Debari sources power requirements from our captive thermal power plants located at Chanderiya and at Zawar while it also has 7.3 MW of power generation capacity from Waste Heat Recovery and another 12 MW of solar power capacity.

Certification

The management system of Zinc Smelter Debari comprises of: the Quality System ISO 9001:2008, the Environmental System ISO 14001:2004, Occupational Health Safety and Assessment Series OHSAS 18001:2007, Social Accountability SA 8000 – 2008; and is also a 5S Certified unit.

Process Description

Roast Leach Electro-winning (RLE)

The hydrometallurgical smelting process is a roast, leach and electro-winning (RLE) process. In this process zinc concentrate is first oxidized in the roaster and the gases generated are cleaned and sent to the sulphuric acid plant. The primary output from the roaster, called calcine, is sent to the leaching plant to produce a zinc sulphate solution that is then passed through a cold/hot purification process to produce purified zinc sulphate solution. The purified zinc solution then goes through an electrolysis process to produce zinc cathodes. Finally, the zinc cathodes are melted and cast into zinc ingots.

The Pyrometallurgical process involves the smelting of lead and zinc together as described under “Zinc Smelters”. Lead removed from the Pyrometallurgical process is sent for further refining where it passes through a series of processes to remove impurities. In this process, silver is also produced as a by-product. The refined lead is cast into lead ingots.

Ausmelt process description

Our Ausmelt lead plant is based on Top Submerged Lance technology where lead concentrate is smelted directly in a vertical furnace along with flux. Lead bullion produced in this process is then treated in the lead refinery plant to produce high purity lead ingots. Off-gas containing sulphur dioxide gas is then cleaned and treated in the sulphuric acid plant.