Mined zinc production in India declined 5% in June quarter: Vedanta

Vedanta on Wednesday said production of mined zinc at its Indian unit dropped by 5 per cent to 202,000 tonnes in the first quarter of the ongoing fiscal due to fewer days of output in April and lower workforce availability on account of Covid-19.

Giving an update on its zinc production in the country, the company said the "mined metal production for Q1FY21 was 202,000 tonnes, down 5 per cent as compared to Q1FY20 and 19 per cent as compared Q4FY20."

The integrated metal production was 202,000 tonnes for Q1 FY21, down 8 per cent as compared to Q1 FY20 and 9 per cent as compared to Q4 FY20 due to lower production in April, it said in a BSE filing.

The company said there was no production of iron ore at Goa due to suspension of mining pursuant to the Supreme Court judgement.

"We continue to engage with the Government for resumption of mining operations," it said.

At Karnataka, iron ore production volume in Q1 FY21 was 0.9 million tonnes, lower by 13 per cent year-on-year, majorly due to the impact of Covid-19 during the initial days of April.

Pig iron production was at 109,000 tonnes in the quarter, lower by 39 per cent as compared to Q1 FY20 and 26 per cent as compared to Q4 FY20.

The "total saleable production for Q1FY21 was 267,000 tonnes, lower by 17 per cent as compared to Q1FY20, due to lower furnace availability in Q1FY21 for 60 days owing to supply crunch amidst nationwide lockdown due to COVID-19 resulting in 60,000 tonnes of hot metal volume loss. Sequentially, total saleable production was lower by 16 per cent.