Indian miner Vedanta Resources has announced that in the January-March period this year it produced 1.5 million mt of iron ore, after resuming mining operations in the Indian state of Karnataka on December 28, following clearance from the Supreme Court of India and having obtained other statutory clearances. However, only 27,000 mt was sold.
Vedanta stated that in Goa the company participated in e-auctions of inventory and sold 300,000 mt during the quarter but these were not counted as sales since the dispatches did not take place during the quarter. These dispatches have commenced in the current month of April.
According to Vedanta, regarding mining in Goa, the expert committee appointed by the Supreme Court submitted its second interim report to the Court on March 24, 2014. The expert committee in its report recommended that 27.5 million mt per year was a sustainable extraction level in the state, but suggested that the ideal permissible limit be 20 million mt per year until a scientific study is completed within 12 months. The decision of the Supreme Court is awaited on this matter.
