Smelting Giant Korea Zinc to Invest $6.6 Billion in Green Power

Heejin Kim and

Peter Pae

After nearly half a century expanding its bread-and-butter business into one of the world's largest metal smelting operations, Korea Zinc Co. is setting its sights on renewable energy to cut costs and drive growth.

The Seoul-headquartered zinc, gold, silver and lead smelter plans to invest $6.6 billion over the next eight years developing solar and wind power generation and green hydrogen production, with aim of meeting its RE100 goal of using electricity generated entirely from renewable sources, according to Yun Choi, Korea Zinc's vice chairman and heir apparent.