Vedanta Group firm, Sesa Goa, on Friday reported a 14.84 per cent year—on—year decline in sales of iron ore to 1.55 million tonnes during the quarter ended September 30, 2011.

The company had reported sales of 1.82 million tonnes during the corresponding quarter last fiscal.

However, it managed to achieve higher sales realisation from Karnataka during the quarter, at 0.71 million tonnes, vis—a—vis 0.45 million tonnes of iron ore sales in Q2 of FY’11, Sesa Goa said in a statement.

It added that “sales were benefited by higher volumes in Karnataka prior to the imposition of a mining ban.”

Currently, the company does not produce any iron ore from Karnataka, following a ban imposed by the apex court in August on mining in the state.

During the quarter, Sesa Goa’s sales from Goa went down by 9.78 per cent to 0.83 million tonnes from 0.92 million tonnes last year, it added.

In addition, the company’s total production of iron ore went down by over 61 per cent during the July—September quarter to 1.12 million tonnes, largely due to the apex court ban on mining in Karnataka.

It had reported total iron ore production of 2.88 million tonnes in Q2 last fiscal.

The company did not give production numbers for iron ore mined in Karnataka and Goa last quarter.

In the first half of this fiscal, the Vedanta Group firm reported a 13.56 per cent fall in sales of iron ore to 5.8 million tonnes, while production also went down by over 36 per cent to 5.51 MT during this period, it said.

Sesa Goa had earlier pegged iron ore production in the current fiscal at about 22 million tonnes, of which 7 mt was to come from Karnataka, while 15 mt was to be produced from its mines in Goa.

Moreover, the company had completed a deal for acquiring a 51 per cent stake in three iron ore assets in Liberia, the statement said.

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