Vedanta: Expect to Start Goa Iron-Ore Transportation by End-November

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.

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