By Alex MacDonald
LONDON--U.K.-listed Vedanta Resources PLC (VED.LN) expects to
restart iron-ore shipments from its stock yards in the Indian state
of Goa by the end of November, pending permission from several
regulators including the Indian Supreme Court, a senior company
executive said Tuesday.
"We are still hopeful that by November [end] we will get the
clearance to start transporting," Prasun Mukherjee, the managing
director of Vedanta's majority-owned iron-ore unit Sesa Goa Ltd.
(500295.BY) told analysts in a conference call.
The Goan government temporarily suspended iron-ore mining in the
state from Sept. 11 pending verification of various approval
documents. The Supreme Court then ruled on Oct. 5 that the ban on
mining activities in Goa should continue, and asked a committee to
file a preliminary report in four weeks related to the review of
approvals documents among other things. Until then, the court has
also restricted any movement of ore from mines or of ore from mines
or stockyard.
"We are working closely with the regulatory authorities to
complete the review processes," Vedanta said in a statement. The
ban on movement of iron ore should be lifted in early November and
Sesa Goa is expected to begin selling its iron ore in stock by the
end of November, Mr. Mukherjee said on the conference call.
He said Sesa Goa has about 2.5 million metric tons of saleable
iron ore in inventories in Goa at the moment and about another 1
million tons of unprocessed ore lying in the mines. A person
familiar with the matter said that production would only resume
once the mining ban has been lifted, sometime after transportation
of iron ore resumes.
Sesa Goa is able to produce about 14.5 million tons of iron ore
annually from Goa and 6 million tons annually from the Indian state
of Karnataka. Mr. Mukherjee said that Sesa Goa will operate at a
reduced production capacity of 2.3 million tons a year in Karnataka
following the recent lifting of a mining ban in the state.
Write to Alex MacDonald at alex.macdonald@dowjones.com
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