Vedanta Second-Quarter Iron Ore, Aluminum Output Rise (Update3)

Vedanta Resources Plc, controlled by billionaire Anil Agarwal, raised fiscal second-quarter iron ore output 27 percent from a year ago on “improved efficiencies” in mining, while aluminum production climbed 13 percent. The London-based company boosted iron ore output in the three months ended Sept. 30 to 3.3 million metric tons, and aluminum to 120,000 tons, it said in a statement today. The shares rose to the highest since June 2008 in London trading. Vedanta, India’s largest copper producer, plans to expand aluminum output to become the fifth-largest producer and added iron ore production in April 2007 with the purchase of Sesa Goa Ltd. The company reported on July 31 that fiscal first-quarter profit slumped 52 percent after metals prices declined. The company said it produced 91,000 tons of finished copper plates, called cathodes, in India and Australia during the second quarter, “significantly higher” than in the same period a year earlier, without giving a percentage change. Production in Zambia, the location of the Konkola Deep development, fell 5 percent to 35,000 tons, Vedanta added. “The Konkola Deep Mine Project is progressing well,” it said in the statement. The Nchanga smelter resumed operations after a month’s maintenance closure in September, Vedanta said. Refined zinc output expanded 16 percent to 141,000 tons. Vedanta shares rose 85 pence, or 4 percent, to 2,190 pence in London, the highest since June 25, 2008.