Mining ban still hurting Vedanta production

Mining giant Vedanta Resources continues to see reduced iron ore sales as a result of the mining ban in the Karnatka state of south-western India.

Sales of iron ore in the three months to the end of March were 5.2m tonnes, compared with the 6.6m sold in the same period of 2011.

For the full year, sales were 16m tonnes as compared with 18.1m during full year 2010-11. Production over the last 12 months has fallen 27% compared to the prior year.

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Vedanta is challenging the mining ban in India's Supreme Court, but also admits transport bottlenecks in the state of Goa are contributing to the reduced sales figures

The company saw zinc-lead metal production come in 7% higher during January to March compared to October to December but the full year numbers were 1% lower than 2010-2011 at 830,000 tonnes.

Silver production was a record 2.84m ounces in the fourth quarter, 77% higher than the same period of the previous year as a result of ramp-ups and a new lead smelter and silver refinery. Silver production for the full year increased 35% to 7.78m ounces.

In December last year Vedanta bought a stake in oil and gas producer Cairn India for $8.5bn. Today's production update shows total daily production has increased 16% to 180,293 barrels of oil equivalent per day (boepd). Of that total, Vedanta's working interest is around 59%, giving a total for the three months since ownership of 9.76m boepd.

BS