Vedanta Resources

This article is part of the Mining and Metals project of Spinwatch

Vedanta Resources is an Indian owned and London Stock Exchange registered FTSE 100 listed mining and metals company. It is one of the fastest growing and most controversial mining companies in the world. Vedanta and its subsidiaries operate copper, zinc, iron, lead, coal and aluminium mining and production in India, Zambia, Namibia, Australia and Ireland.

India

Vedanta's main operations are in India and its main interests are in the mineral rich state of Orissa, where over 50 per cent of India's total bauxite deposits, worth billions of dollars, are found. It has been accused of various environmental and human rights crimes, briefly summarised below with links:

Niyamgiri

In 2004 Vedanta (initially via its subsidiary Sterlite) began attempting to get a license to mine the Niyamgiri mountains for the 73 million tonnes of bauxite found at the mountain's flat top. They plan to process 1 million tonnes per year at the Lanjigarh refinery, which they built below the mountain before getting any permission to mine the mountain. The project has become a major international issue due to the threat of mining to the Dongia Kondh tribe who would consider the mountain sacred and would be displaced by the mining.

Corporate Watch have documented the involvement of the UK's Department for International Development in bringing the mine to Orissa in their series on 'dodgy development'. They also provide a good summary of the issues as they stood in early 2010.

On August 24th 2010 the Indian Government's Saxena Report accused Vedanta of 'flouting environmental laws' at Niyamgiri. As a result permission to mine was denied by environment minister Jairam Ramesh who refused forest clearance, and subsequently also environmental clearance in July 2011. . Ramesh cited multiple counts of environmental violations including illegal occupation of forestry and inadequate resettlement of displaced people.

However, the company is not willing to give up, having already built the Lanjigarh refinery, which is currently operating at break even at 1 million tonnes per year, awaiting the sixfold expansion it plans with Niyamgiri bauxite. Vedanta are appealing the refusal to mine in the Indian High Court and also plan to resubmit the application to mine, stressing the involvement of the state-owned Orissa Mining Corporation as main applicants for the mining lease. In July 2011, shortly before the company's AGM in London, a government reshuffle transferred the previous environment minister Jairam Ramesh for Jayanthi Natarajan who promised in an interview to CNN-IBN Vedanta that ‘the past is over’ and ‘speedy decisions will be ensured’ for ‘major projects’ such as those of Vedanta.

Vedanta has a number of friends within the Indian government, including home minister P. Chidambaram - a former director of Vedanta, who stepped down a day before becoming Finance Minister in 2004.

Sesa Goa

In November 2009 the Bombay High Court at Goa ruled that Vedanta’s Sesa Goa iron ore subsidiary was illegally dumping mining waste near Advalpal village in north Goa. On 6 June 2010, the dumps collapsed due to heavy rains. Tonnes of mining waste overflowed leading to floods. The Indian Bureau of Mines found that the mining plan had been violated.

Sesa Goa was condemned in May 2011 by the Indian Serious Fraud Investigation Office (SFIO) for falsifying records for tax evasion and bribing a sales agent to enable iron ore exports to foreign buyers. The SFIO recommended prosecution of the managing director and company secretary.

On 16th July 2011 a waste pond at the Bicholim mine in Goa broke open flooding local villages and water bodies with toxic waste. This led the Goa 'Bharat Mukti Morcha' campaign group to call for the immediate arrest of the managing director as well as the controlling shareholder and chairman Anil Agarwal.

Vedanta University

Chairman Anil Agarwal set up the Anil Agarwal Foundation as a public company in 2006 with a high profile $1 billion personal donation in order to build a 'world class university' in the heart of Orissa. The university was billed to be as renowned as Stanford or Cambridge and would attract 100,000 students with a campus spread over 6,892 acres. Part of the proposed campus included the world-famous Shri Jagannath temple which the foundation intended to buy. But the project was fiercely opposed by local people who did not want to leave their land, as well as temple goers. In September 2010 the project was ruled illegal by the Lok Pal anti corruption committee due to illegal land acquisition and 'unlawful deeds' by the foundation, including in fact being a private and not public company. The Orissa state government was also accused of illegally trying to acquire land on behalf of a private company. The land must now be given back to its original owners.

Chhattisgarh

In September 2009 a chimney at Vedanta's subsidiary BALCO's Korba power plant in the right wing state of Chhattisgarh, India collapsed killing more than 40 workers. The company claimed that a lightning strike had caused the collapse but investigations later revealed that inadequate materials and poor working conditions were the cause, accusing the company of 'negligence' for their resistance to the investigation.

Jharsuguda, Odisha

According to the Indian weekly magazine Telekha:

In July 2009, a show cause notice was issued by the Orissa State Pollution Control Board (ospcb) to Vedanta Aluminium for violating water and air pollution Acts at its smelter and another nine captive power plants in the Jharsuguda district of north Odisha. In September 2010, it was discovered that these projects were operating without clearances from the ospcb. According to an rti (Right to Information) reply obtained from the ospcb, two 135 mw captive power units of Vedanta Aluminium’s 5 lakh tonne-a-year smelter never got any clearance from the board.

Thoothukudi, Tamil Nadu

According to the Indian weekly magazine Telekha:

In September 2010, the company was ordered by the Madras High Court to stop production at its Thoothukudi copper smelter for environmental reasons — a decision that has been overturned by a stay order of the Supreme Court for the time being. Villagers from Thoothukudi complain of the health impact, including cases of cancer and increase in severe respiratory ailments. In November 2008, Sterlite was also found guilty of environmental damage in the Kolli Hills.

Subsidiaries

• Vedanta Aluminium. Produces aluminium. Operates in India.
• Sterlite - Sterlite Industries. Produces copper cathodes, continuous cast rods (CCR), chemical byproducts. Operates in India.
• Sterlite Energy. Produces energy. Operates in India.
• Sesa Goa. Produces iron ore, pig iron, metallurgical coke, coke making technologies. Operates in India.
• BALCO - Bharat Aluminium Company Ltd. Produces aluminium. Operates in India.
• HZLINDIA - Hindustan Zinc Ltd. Produces zinc, lead, silver, cadmium. Operates in India.
• MALCO - Madras Aluminium Co. Ltd. Produces aluminium. Operates in India.
• CMT - Copper Mines of Tasmania. Produces copper. Operates in Australia.
• KCM - Konkola Copper Mines. Produces copper, cobalt, pyrites and acids. Operates in Zambia.
• Lisheen - The Lisheen Mine. Produces zinc. Operates in Ireland.
• Skorpion Zinc. Produces zinc. Operates in Namibia.
• Black mountain zinc mine. Produces zinc. Operates in South Africa.
• Vedanta Foundation

People

• Anil Agarwal Founder, Chairman and 62 per cent shareholder.

Contact

16 Berkeley Street

London

W1J 8DZ

United Kingdom

Phone: 44 20 7499 5900

Fax: 44 20 7491 8440