Hindustan Zinc inaugurates ‘Hindustan Zinc Mining Academy’ at Zawar to enhance skills of in-house talent in Mining Operations
Udaipur, 4th August 2022: Hindustan Zinc, India’s only and the world’s leading integrated zinc-lead-
silver producer has set up a new ‘Hindustan Zinc Mining Academy’ at Zawar to help train in-house
talent source from business partners in mining operations. Hindustan Zinc understands that India’s
mining sector faces a severe shortage of skilled manpower. To help address this problem, the
company conducted research that helped identify Jumbo Drill Operators, a profile often taken up by
ex-pats, as the occupation wherein more and better-skilled manpower could prove to be especially
handy.
The Mining Academy has been developed in association with GHH India Mining and Tunneling
Equipment Pvt. Ltd. with an aim to develop the talent within the organization to cater to the need for
expert skills for Jumbo Drill Operations. Hindustan Zinc has fortified this program via various
provisions such as a 3D simulator, which is a Virtual Reality hi-tech device used to train operators in
heavy machinery. The simulators have proven to be a cost-effective, safe, and efficient method to
impart requisite training about concepts as well as skills, including controls familiarization,
procedure compliance, etc. The program is an amalgamation of Classroom and Simulator Training
and On-the-Job training. One of the key elements of on-the-job training is Operator Shadowing
wherein the candidates will be closely shadowing the current Jumbo operators that are assigned to
them as trainers thus gaining comprehensive hands-on experience.
Commenting on the establishment of the new program, Mr Arun Misra, CEO, of Hindustan Zinc,
said, “The objective of setting up the ‘Hindustan Zinc Mining Academy’ at Zawar is to enhance the
skills of young talent in the mining industry. This academy will help develop jumbo drill
operators, load haul dumper (LHD) operators, and low-profile dumper truck (LPDT) operators and
thus reduce the dependency on the ex-pats. We have begun the Mining Academy’s first batch in
Zawar with 20 mining experienced jumbo helpers and continue to invite batches from our other
mining locations to get trained here.”
As noted above, this unique initiative provides crucial training to helpers and associated crew
members into certified jumbo drill operators. The program will take place over a five-months
the period which will include 16 weeks of classroom instruction, simulation training, and seven weeks of
on-the-job instruction. This extensive training program will cover all the aspects of the Jumbo Drill
Operation along with some basics of maintenance.