Vedanta Resources is a diversified and integrated metals and mining group with annual sales of $1.9bn. Its principal operations are located in India, where it has a major market share in each of our main metals: aluminium, copper, zinc and lead. There are also substantial copper operations in Zambia and 2 copper mines in Australia.

            Red = 25 day moving average.           Green = 200 day moving average.

                        

Copper - (6 month graph)

SALES PER ACTIVITY (Data as of 31/03/2006)

Copper:      60%
Zinc:         24%
Aluminium:  12%
Others:       4%

ET So much for rumours.

I think you are short. Hope so.

S Price going up again this morning.

Fred1new.

I'm also under that impression.

I'd take that as a buy then.

Going up as I type.

Strange the market didn't think the same and SP seems to be up into current trend!!!!!

This outfit's share movements are beginning to Intrigue me.

1. Yesterday when some of the other miners were up early part of the day, VED was the last to respond.

2. Today just the opposite.

I now want out of these to free up money for other opportunities when they arise but something keeps saying "not quite yet old chap".

I know the feeling Stan.

But now the price has got over the 14 mark, I'm going to stay put.

KD.

Me to...I think, trouble Is I seem to change my mind with this lot every time I give It more thought -:)

Suppose I should just stop thinking-:)

Out at last, sold the lot...needless to say It ticked up a few just after!

Profit's a profit.

Yep true enough K, by the way lots of Interesting rather large buys In the after 4.30 finish I see.

Could be a very rewarding session for all you holders tomorrow.

Good luck all.

Vedanta Resources PLC announced a slew of projects that is expected to enable Zambia's Konkola Copper Mines (KCM) to nearly treble its copper production.

The projects will allow KCM, in which Vedanta holds a 51 pct stake, to raise output from 2.4 mln tonnes to 6 mln tonnes thus extending its lifespan to 2035, KCM chairman Navin Agarwal said.

'The total investment in these projects is 750 million dollars. This is the single largest investment in Zambia to date,' Agarwal said.

He said KCM has awarded contracts to several international firms to develop the untapped Konkola Deep Mining Project (KDMP), as well as construct a new smelter and acid plant which will be completed in 2009.

The new smelter plant will produce 250,000 tonnes of copper while an acid plant will manufacture 1,700 tonnes of acid per day, Agarwal said.

'KCM will have created the capacity within Zambia to treat all the copper concentrate that will be produced by other stand alone copper mines, thereby enabling the country to export value added finished copper rather than exporting raw material concentrate,' Agarwal said in a statement.

KCM is Zambia's largest mining company with a work force of 10,000 workers.

Vedanta Resources is a London-listed Indian mining group which bought 51 pct stake in KCM in November 2004, two years after South African mining firm Anglo American Corporation withdrew from KCM.

Big Mining Is Big Value - By Alun Morris


I don't often buy large cap shares. I prefer to stay away from the thousand Watt arc lamps of multiple broker analysis and take my flashlight around the darker corners of the market.

However this month I bought a share in a sector that looks so cheap that I couldn't keep my grasping value hands off it any longer. I have been mulling a move on big mining since UK investing legend Jim Slater said in February that mining shares were cheap. In fact he thought the rating of this sector was one of the most serious mis-pricing of markets he had ever seen, showing high growth and low P/Es. Being fully invested I didn't buy. Besides, these huge companies have more analysts than Woody Allen, so where's my edge?



Why are big miners so cheap?

This sector is cheap for a reason. Metal prices have run up a hill that's got steeper and steeper and we don't know if there's a cliff at the end. Copper, nickel and zinc have doubled or trebled in the past year, largely due to rapid growth and construction spending in China and India. Many see it as yet another bubble with prices overshooting due to speculation. The futures market is predicting significant falls in prices next year. Demand would fall if the Chinese or Indian economies stumble..

The bull arguments are:

* The same was said about oil last year but the futures market is now predicting $70+ oil until 2011.

* New mines take six to seven years to enter production, so the recent rush to start new mines will not give a big supply boost until the end of the decade.

* Chinese growth seems to be underpinned by endless demand for ever cheaper consumer goods.

I believe that mining shares offer the same opportunity that the oil and gas sector did a year ago -- their prices considerably lag the rise in the commodities they produce.



So which is the cheapest?

An excellent Metals and Mining report from Deutsche Bank this month looked at seven UK listed shares. The table below has excitingly low ratios, especially cashflow, and uses Deutsche's estimates adjusted for Wednesday's prices:

                       2007 P/E
Anglo American      9.2
Antofagasta          7.1
BHP Billiton            8.2
Kazakhmys            6.5
Lonmin                11.4
Rio Tinto               8.4
Vedanta                7.2



see article and table in full here


Cash

Cash, cash, cash! Music to my ears. The sector has more cash than it knows how to spend, hence the very low P/CF and EV/EBITDA figures. I decided to buy Vedanta -- it has the lowest 2007 cashflow ratios and nearly the lowest P/E. These reflect forecast output growth of 48% over the next 3 years., far higher than the others at about 5% to 25%. Jim Slater likes it too -- in a talk in June his picks were BHP Billiton and Vedanta.

Be prepared for a bumpy ride. These shares will often move two or three times as much as the FTSE-100 in a day. If you can stomach this and the risk of a slump in copper prices (and the forecasts already assume some decline), Vedanta looks the cheapest of the bunch.

Broker Recommendations;

Deutsche reiterates buy Vedanta Resources with a 16.60 target.

Merrill says buy Vedanta Resources - rated at over 22.

Morgan Stanley has overweight on Vedanta Resources (2300p target).

Citigroup has a buy rating and 22 for Vedanta Resources.

JP Morgan - Vedanta was kept "overweight" with a price target of 1,965p.

Vedanta has been initiated as a buy by ABN Amro with a target price of 1850 pence.

Goldman Sachs said it believes Vedanta remains the best 'buy' idea in the sector, as the group offers 62% potential upside to its target price.