The Sindesar Khurd mine lies on the same geological belt as the Rajpura Dariba mine. The mine is approachable from Rajpura Dariba mines by road.

The mineralization has been traced over almost 2.5 kilometers along strike and 1.3 kilometre vertical extension. In the mine area, dip is steep westerly, while the dip turns into easterly direction in the lower-southern part of the deposit. The current mine block extends over 1,500 meters along strike and up to 420 meters depth extension.

The deposit has been drilled to a depth of approximately 1,300 meters below surface and the ore body is traced over approximately 2 kilometers along the strike with a 1,100 meters vertical extension. While the deposit is still open in depth in the southern extension of the present mine block, the area below the mine block and towards the north extension only has narrow and low to moderate grade mineralization intersected.

The mine was initially opened as a satellite of Rajpura Dariba Mine. It is located 82 kms north-east of Udaipur, in the State of Rajasthan in India. It is a high silver content mine and has a uniform ore body with good zinc and lead grade.

Access to the mine is presently through declines (North and South) and an underground shaft. Mining method is blast hole open stoping with filling.

The current mine block extends over 1,500 metres along strike and up to 420 metres depth extension.

SKM started operations in 2006 and has seen several phases of expansions from 0.3 million MT to its current capacity of 6.0 million MT of ore, making it the largest underground mine in India. Its reserve & resource grade is 6.2%. SKM consists of multiple standalone deposits, or auxiliary lenses leading to three standalone production centres at present. The mine is currently producing from the main lens, with 3.5 million MT per annum capacity & SKA2 and SKA6 lenses with total capacity of 2.5 million MT per annum. SKM’s expansion has significantly contributed to the Company’s integrated lead and silver production.

The excavations are supported as per the systematic support rules of SKM, for e.g. shotcrete, wire mesh, rock bolts, cable bolts and the open stopes are backfilled with paste. Primary stopes are currently being mined in C block and a suitable stoping methodology for safe extraction of ore from the secondary stopes in the C block needs to be determined to meet with the production requirements.

Ore produced from the mine is treated at 2.0 mmtpa beneficiation plant commissioned in 2011 at Sindesar Khurd. Benefication plant has undergone debottlenecking in January 2015 to increase its capacity from 2 to 2.8 mtpa at Sindesar Khurd.

The ore is crushed at the surface and transported to the beneficiation plant for further crushing; milling; and flotation process. Lead and zinc concentrates are sent to their respective high rate thickeners installed separately for lead concentrate and zinc concentrate generated from the concentrator. Tailing dewatering and disposal section comprises of hydro cyclone, tailing thickener, neutralization tank, pumping of tailing to tailing pond and reclaimed water pumping. Lead and zinc concentrates are thickened, filtered and stored before they are sent to HZL’s smelters.

During the 2021 year, our graphite floatation system was commissioned at Mill 3 of Sindesar Khurd Mines, which will enhance the smelter throughput and bolster recovery.