Vedanta Shows Increased Q4 Iron Output

Zinc Shows Slight Fall in Quarter

London-listed miner, Vedanta Resources, said on Thursday that fourth-quarter zinc production fell 2% to 194,000 tonnes; however full-year production was up 5% to 769,000 tonnes reflecting improved mining performance.

Refined zinc and lead production were in line with the previous quarter at 150,000 tonnes and 20,000 tonnes respectively, though full-year production was up 5% and 11% at 578,000 tonnes and 72,000 tonnes.

Iron ore production rose 59% over the previous quarter to 7.8 million tonnes, with annual production up by 36% to 20.5 million tonnes. The increases were largely due to new production facilities at Vedanta’s Dempo operations and increased throughput at Sesa Goa. The company is on target to increase its production capacity to 50 million tonnes per year by 2013.

Goa Waterways "Can't Handle" More Iron Ore Traffic

Port Chief Claims Waterways Have Hit Saturation Point

The chairman of the Goa-based Mormugao Port Trust (MPT), Praveen Agarwal, has said that inland waterways in the Indian state do not have the capacity to handle an increase in iron ore traffic.

Mr Agarwal’s comments came in the wake of the state government announcing that it would grant clearance permission for 100 more mines, potentially doubling the state’s potential output.

"If there are 100 more mines, what we have to look is whether waterways are able to handle such traffic. The waterways have reached a saturation point," Mr Agarwal told reporters today. "Unless waterways are developed, it will not be able to increase the capacity," he said.

Despite this, Mr Agarwal stated that the MPT would be in a position to handle any increase in output. However, he added “Increased capacity of mines will not result in increase in transport output.”

Iron and manganese ore is extracted from open cast mines in Goa’s hinterland and transported by barge through a network of two rivers, Mandovi and Zuari, which stretch from the mining heartland to the port at Mormugao.

“The barges this year carried 54 million tonnes of ore as compared to 44 million tonnes last year.” Mr Agarwal said.

Goa’s 110 operational mines exported nearly 40 tonnes of ore in the last financial year, according to state government figures. With the MoEF’s granting clearance to 100 more mines in Goa, the number of operational mines is likely to double.

NSL Consolidated To Ship First Consignment Of Iron Ore

Iron ore miner NSL Consolidated has announced it will ship its first consignment of iron ore later this month.

The shipment of 20,000 tonnes will depart from Krishnapatnam Port in the Andhra Pradesh, on the east coast of India. Further shipments are planned as production is increased towards the end of the month. The shipment was delayed by the Chinese New Year holiday and by NSL securing crushing capacity.

“We are very pleased to have established our mining and logistics operations to the point where we are now very close to loading our first shipment of Indian iron ore, bound for China,” said managing director Cedric Goode said.

“Once our first shipment is underway we will have demonstrated proof of concept that our operating model; i.e. of acquiring ready to operate projects with direct ship ore and using local contractors to mine and transport our product to port – can work.

“The next steps for NSL are to get our Kuja mine into full production, complete our re-compliance listing and continue our evaluation of mining opportunities to expand our portfolio of producing mines in India.”

The company has already commenced mining at expected capacity at its latest project, the Mangal mine, in the Kurnool district of Andhra Pradesh and has commenced transporting iron ore by road to its storage facility at Krishnapatnam Port. To date approximately 1,500 tonnes of ore have been moved from the Mangal mine to the Port. allowing NSL to test the logistics network and verify its capability.

Indian Iron Ore Prices Head For $140 a Tonne

Reuters reports that iron ore prices from India are set to hit levels last seen during 2008. Deals done on Thursday were at $137-$138 a tonne C&F, up from $129 a tonne last week. Meanwhile there were rumours amongst traders of deals being done at $140-143 a tonne.

According to Beijing-based trade information company Umetal, steel mills did not increase inventories before the recent Lunar festival, leading to shortages when factories returned to work this week.

The price of iron ore last hit the $140 a tonne level back in 2008 when purchases for it post-Olympic infrastructure pushed up prices.

India Imposes Moratorium On Goa Mining

India’s minister for the environment and forests, Jairam Ramesh, has told the Goa chief minister Digambar Kamat that the ministry has “imposed a moratorium on consideration of mining proposals for environmental clearance… till the mineral policy for the state of Goa is finalised.”

Ramesh has also called for a comprehensive environmental impact assessment of current mining activities and for those which permissions have been given over the last few years. The Nagpur-based National Environmental Engineering Research Institute is to carry out the study.

There are about 100 operational iro -ore and manganese ore mines in Goa’s hinterland which export nearly 33 million tons of ore annually.

Goa Iron Exports Rise On Chinese Buying

Goa has surpassed the iron ore export target set for FY09, witnessing a 15 per cent rise in shipments recorded during FY08.

The mineral-rich state, which contributes about 40 per cent to the overall iron ore shipments from India, is estimated to record a total export of 45.5 million tonnes in FY09 compared to 39.5 million tonnes in the previous fiscal.

The growth is significant as the global financial turmoil has sharply brought down the Chinese demand in the aftermath of Lehman Brothers’ collapse in August last year. As a consequence, analysts were expecting a fall in India’s overall exports and its repercussion on shipments from Goa. Experts, early this year, had lowered their earlier exports target from 45 million tonnes to 40 million tonnes.

“Earlier we thought that the fall in Chinese demand would lower overall iron ore exports from Goa. But, a nice pick up during the December - March period compensated for the fall during the August - October period. Also, in the earlier months of the last fiscal (April - May 2008), the overall exports were fairly good,” said Glenn Kalavampara, secretary of Goa Mineral Ore Exporters’ Association (GMOEA).

“We are yet to finish compiling the final figure on overall exports. But, initial indications hint that shipment would rise 15 per cent during the last financial year,” Kalavampara said.

Goa is endowed with huge mineral deposits, largely between the grades of 50-61 per cent of iron content.

While the volume picked up during the last year, price remained under pressure of the iron ore. Prices of iron ore of the average grade of $57-58 has nosedived over 57 per cent since April 2008 to $30 a tonne now.

Both iron ore prices and exports showed inconsistencies last fiscal, said Kalavampara. The extended monsoon and late turnouts of mineworkers hit shipment by the end of the first half when global financial crisis began to affect on steel demand. Fearing a grave impact on infrastructure and therefore, lower steel demand, primary and secondary producers cut their output by up to 25 per cent. That hit iron ore demand in both local and global markets.

In the meantime, pipeline inventories of iron ore exhausted completely which forced steel producers to build stocks again thereby, helping miners to transport ore to steel mills.

During the year, Mormugao Port Trust (MPT) recorded a 23.85 rise in iron ore shipment at 33.81 million tonnes as against 27.30 million tonnes in the previous year. Of this, exports to China surged a staggering 41.52 per cent to 28.77 million tonnes as against 20.33 million tonnes.

Shipments to Japan, in contrast, declined 9.62 per cent at 3.11 million tonnes from 3.43 million tonnes. During the year, the port touched an all time record cargo traffic of 41.68 million tonnes, surpassing its previous best of 35.13 million tonnes handled in 2007-08.

Source: Business Standard

Goa's Iron Ore Exports On The Increase

Goa’s iron ore exports are slowly witnessing a recovery, raising hopes of touching the export figure of last year.

Exports last year reached 40 million tonnes, 33.5 million tonnes of which ore was of Goan origin and the rest from neighbouring States routed through Goa. Goa’s last year’s export turnover was put at around Rs 65billion.

Though much of the recovery is given to revival of China’s steel industry due to a financial package by its Government, the Goan industry attributes equal significance to the Union Government’s recent decision to scrap the duty on certain categories of iron ore exports, particularly low- grade ore. Around 80 per cent of Goa’s ore exports fall under low-grade category.

The State’s private sector exporters had last year reached exports of 37 million tonnes. After fearing a near fall of around 30 per cent during the current year, the Goa Ministeral Ore exporters’ Association (GMOEA), the body representing the iron ore exporters, is now confident that they may reach last year’s figure.

Sources in export companies said that while there has been a perceptible change in China’s intake, the same cannot be said about Japan and some of the European markets.

Factors behind the sudden rush for iron ore export to China are believed to be a $50 billion bailout plan by Beijing and the fact that its steel industry has begun importing iron ore as prices are at their lowest for some time.

Source: The Hindu Business Line