Vedanta's Goa mine may restart iron ore export to China

Panaji, Aug 18: Vedanta's iron ore division in Goa is expected to resume exports to China after a lull of three years.

Representatives of steel manufacturing mills from China's Jiangsu province and Tangshan area are currently in Goa to have discussions with officials of Vedanta's subsidiary, Sesa Iron ore.

"They are our long-term buyers and with the company intending to resume extraction soon, they are in Goa to have discussion with the officials," Sesa Iron Ore's Vice-President, Corporate Affairs, A N Joshi told PTI today.

The Sesa Iron Ore has officially announced resumption of iron ore extraction at its mine in Codli, 80 km south of Panaji. It was Asia's biggest iron ore mining site when the industry faced closure in September 2012.

The current environment clearance limit for this mine is around three million metric tonnes a year, scaled down from earlier limit of seven million metric tonnes annually.

Both the Chinese mills had been associated with Sesa for last 25-30 years, Joshi said, adding that they will be comparing the low grade iron ore from Sesa to markets in Australia and other places before finalising the deal.

The mills have a production capacity of six million metric tonnes of steel a year each. Before the mining halt in Goa, China was the biggest market for the state.

The iron ore extraction activity in Goa had come to standstill after the state government suspended mining leases owing to illegal activities, and later Supreme Court banned it till April 2014.

Goa government has already renewed many of the leases, paving way for resumption of iron ore extraction in the state. However, Chief Minister Laxmikant Parsekar recently said that he would order the mine owners to restart the activity in October this year, if they fail to do so.

PTI