Vedanta group firm Sesa Sterlite (formerly Sesa Goa) on Monday resumed iron ore mining in Karnataka after a gap of more than two years after securing the final nod from a Supreme Court appointed monitoring panel to restart operations. The resumption of operations comes eight months after the Supreme Court lifted the mining ban in Karnataka in April. Sesa Sterlites Chitradurga mine was among the beneficiaries of the apex court order,which had allowed resumption of mining in Category A and B mines in the state with conditions. So far,Sesa Sterlites all iron ore mining operations in India were closed primarily due to Supreme Court-imposed mining bans in Goa and Karnataka. The companys Goa operations are closed due to the ban continuing in the state. However,the company will be operating at a much reduced capacity of 2.29 million tonnes per annum (MTPA) as states total iron ore production has been capped at 30 MTPA by the apex court. Before the ban,the company used to produce 6 MTPA.
