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%

This is relevent as Vedanta gains nearly 2/3rds of profits from zinc.
Dai.






Mining Weekly - 20 July 2006

Zinc shortfall was 120 000 t in first 5 months


Zinc supply fell short of demand for the first five months of the year, because of higher consumption of the metal used to galvanize steel, the International Lead and Zinc Study Group said.

Zinc production was 120 000 tons less than demand, compared with a shortfall of 98,000 tons a year earlier, the Lisbon-based group said in a report on its Web site today. The group is funded by the governments of producing and consuming countries.

Demand rose 2,4% to 4,47-million t, the group said. Production grew 1,9% to 4,35-million t.

Independent - 21 July

Weak copper prices obscured strong results from the Indian mining group Vedanta Resources, 14p weaker at 1,302p, as the group reported a 113 per cent rise in first-quarter revenue. The heavyweight brokers Morgan Stanley, Merrill Lynch and UBS all advised their clients to buy the shares, while Citigroup raised its price target to 2,200p.

(Reuters) - Sat Jul 22, 2006

Chile's Escondida union says contract talks fail

SANTIAGO, Chile, - Workers at Chile's Escondida, the world's biggest copper mine, said on Friday contract talks with the company had failed and that they planned to vote on a strike next week barring a new offer.

"It looks like we'll strike," Union Secretary Pedro Marin told Reuters late on Friday after two days of extraordinary talks failed to result in a new offer from the company.

Workers reached the decision in a meeting late on Friday night, Marin said.

The union and managers at Escondida were in talks on Thursday and Friday to try to reach an agreement ahead of a strike vote by workers next week.

The last day for the company to improve its offer is July 25, so workers can vote on July 28 on whether to strike.

Marin said that a strike could begin on Aug. 1 unless the company requests mediation from labor authorities, in which case the sides have five days to resolve their differences.

The union, which represents more than 2,000 workers, began a slowdown this month to protest a wage increase offer that it called too small. The current contract expires on Aug. 2.

This week, the company invited workers to resume formal talks and workers and managers of Escondida met on Thursday and Friday.

"If you ask me about progress...zero," Marin said of the two days of talks.

With global copper prices surging, the Escondida union is asking for a 13 percent raise and a $30,000 net bonus per worker. The company has offered a 1.5 percent raise, a bonus and low-interest loans worth about $8,500 per worker.

28.07.06

Vedanta has been initiated as a buy by ABN Amro with a target price of 1850 pence, dealers said. The Dutch owned broker argued that despite being a pure base metals play with the associated commodity price risk and volatility, Vedanta has set forth the strongest organic growth story in the market. ABN Amro pointed out that the group is starting its Phase II expansion programme, buying back minorities and broadening its diversification. It added that it has already allocated all excess cash it expects to be generated over the next few years., which it believes is a high-risk, high-reward strategy.

Big Mining Is Big Value

By Alun Morris
July 28, 2006

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.

Is Vedanta about to be bought out????? .......Read on.



Wednesday, July 26, 2006
Oligopoly Watch: - The latest maneuvers of the new oligopolies and what they mean.

Consolidation fever in the mining industry

Mining companies have been rolling up the industry over the past few years, and the consensus is that that trend will continue until there are no possible buy reagents left. That's the conclusion of a Financial Times article ("Miners roll up their sleeves to consolidate scarce resources", 7/25/06).

The most immediate sign of the buying frenzy is in the current duel between Phelps Dodge and Xstrata to buy Canada-based Falconbridge, a bidding war that has doubled the price of that company from around $10 billion to over $20 billion.

But that's not the only deal in the works.

* Australian iron ore miner Mount Gibson just made a bid for rival Aztec, hoping to boost the company to #3 status in Australia.
* Canada's GlobeStar Mining Corporation just bought out Dominican Republic nickel mines from Everton Resources Inc.
* Canada's Stornoway Diamond Corp. has bid to buy Canada's Ashton Mining and Contact Diamond Corporation, both diamond mining companies.
* New Zealand's Oceana Gold recently acquired Australia's Climax Mining, another gold miner.
* Canada's Barrick Gold has made an offer to buy Canadian rival NovaGold.

And these are just the deals happening in the last few months, all worth at least hundreds of millions of dollars.

Because metals prices are so high, the mining companies are loaded with cash. That means that even $20 billion acquisitions are doable. Some mid-size mining firms drawing strong interest are Alumina, Newcrest, Lonmin and Vedanta. There are twenty mining companies in the world with between five and 20 billion dollars in revenue, and all bets are that there will be significantly next within a few years. And the bidding, as for Falconbridge, is likely to be strongly contested.

And, as we've seen with big oil, acquiring established sources is far more desirable than spending money on exploration. The FT article quotes a Citigroup analyst as saying: "Acquisitions and buybacks deliver better returns than the expansion of production."

Older miners are wearing out faster than new mines are discovered. Also, the increasing environmental controls and Third-World nationalism make the cost of new mines grow ever higher.

Plus some very big companies are rumored, according to the article, to be targets. Aluminum company Alcoa is one of them, as is rival Alcan. Even gold and diamond giant Anglo-American may be tempting, now that is selling off both its steel and paper operations, making a pure mining play.

Companies like Rio Tinto and BHP Billiton are identified as possible predators. Both are set to generate many billions in cash this year, thanks to skyrocketing iron ore prices. Even smaller deals (purchases of single mines) are significant, as bigger companies keep rolling up smaller ones.

"Is Vedanta about to be bought out????? .......Read on."

Thanks HP for the updates including the one above, my answer to your question is i don't know but it would be nice to think so.

Times Online July 31, 2006

Need to Know

Vedanta Resources, the miner, is to hold its annual meeting on Wednesday. Its first-quarter results, reported two weeks ago, showed revenue up 113 per cent to 1.3 billion.

Vedanta Resources PLC
02 August 2006

VEDANTA RESOURCES plc

RESULTS OF AGM


Wednesday 2 August 2006


At the Company's Annual General Meeting, which was held today, all the
resolutions put to shareholders were duly passed.

The results on each resolution were as follows:
Votes
Resolution Votes for Votes against withheld
---------- ---------- ------------- --------

1 To receive and adopt the audited 212,431,482 1,371,404 57,010
accounts of the Company for the
year ended 31 March 2006,
together with the Directors' 99.36 0.64 N/A
Report and the Independent
Auditors' Report.

2 To approve the Remuneration 211,175,546 1,440,140 1,244,210
Report for the year ended 31
March 2006. 99.32 0.68 N/A

3 To approve a final dividend of 213,859,897 0 0
14.3 US cents per ordinary share
in respect of the year ended 31 100.00 0.00 N/A
March 2006.

4 To re-appoint Mr Anil Agarwal, 202,003,756 11,832,209 23,931
who retires and seeks
re-appointment in accordance
with article 115 of the 94.47 5.53 N/A
Company's Articles of
Association.

5 To re-appoint Dr Shailendra 213,612,671 247,226 0
Kumar Tamotia, who retires and
seeks re-appointment in
accordance with article 115 of 99.88 0.12 N/A
the Company's Articles of
Association.

6 To re-appoint Mr Naresh Chandra, 213,636,167 222,730 1,000
who retires and seeks
re-appointment pursuant to
article 122 of the Company's 99.90 0.10 N/A
Articles of Association.

7 To re-appoint Deloitte & Touche 213,461,288 308,609 90,000
LLP as auditors of the Company
until the conclusion of the next
general meeting at which 99.86 0.14 N/A
accounts are laid before the
Company.

8 To authorise the Audit Committee 213,497,667 272,230 90,000
of the Company to determine the
Auditors' remuneration. 99.87 0.13 N/A

9 To authorise the Directors to 213,089,561 389,601 380,734
allot relevant securities up to
an aggregate nominal amount of:
(a) $3,275,956 in connection
with the $725 million 4.60%
guaranteed convertible bonds due
2026 issued by Vedanta Finance 99.82 0.18 N/A
(Jersey) Limited, a wholly-owned
subsidiary of the Company; and
(b) (otherwise than pursuant to
sub-paragraph (a) of this
resolution) $9,558,417.

10 To authorise the Directors to 213,847,047 7,850 5,000
allot equity securities for cash
as if section 89(1) of the
Companies Act 1985 did not 100.00 0.00 N/A
apply.

11 To authorise the Directors to 213,751,362 108,535 0
make market purchases within the
meaning of section 163(3) of the
Companies Act 1985 of ordinary 99.95 0.05 N/A
shares of $0.10 each in the
capital of the Company.


Percentages show votes as a percentage of the total number of shares being voted
by proxy.

For further information, please contact:

Deepak Kumar (Company Secretary)
Vedanta Resources plc

Telephone: +44 (0) 207 659 4734



This information is provided by RNS
The company news service from the London Stock Exchange

7 August 2006 - Brian O'Connor, Daily Mail

Is Vedanta's rise as good as it seams?



BRITISH investors are having to get used to the fact that an investment on the London Stock Exchange may have little to do with UK plc.

A string of exotic ventures has floated here in the last three years, from copper mines in Kazakhstan to steelmakers in Russia. Some are sold only to professional investors.

But some have gone into UK share indices, where they will be indirectly held by anyone who has an index tracker fund. So it may be useful to profile some of these newcomers.

One is Vedanta, the Indian mining group founded by Anil Agarwal, 53, who started his business career in Bombay (now Mumbai) collecting scrap and selling it to cable companies.

When the telecoms boom sent demand for copper cables soaring, Agarwal went into mining the stuff, later adding aluminium and zinc. His family still owns 53.8pc of Vedanta, a stake worth 2bn.

It floated in London in December 2003, raising 500m at 390p a share. It soon ran into controversy. Brian Gilbertson, who arrived as chairman a month before the float, quit after only eight months to join a rival.

After a profit warning, the shares slid to 270p. They took some time to recover, but are now 1295p, lifting Vedanta into the Footsie 100 in June.

The boardroom doors at Vedanta revolve at a fair speed. Finance director Peter Sydney-Smith quit last year. The new chairman, Michael Fowle, and director Jean-Pierre Rodier left four months ago without explanation. Agarwal took the chair himself.

You would not have to be a professor of music to wonder if this is a one-man band, and why the London Stock Exchange and the Financial Services Authority waved it into the Footsie.

Vedanta sees it differently. It has four non-executive directors, a majority on its board of seven. Senior independent director is Naresh Chandra, 71, a former top civil servant and Indian ambassador to the US. The one Western board member is exbanker Euan Macdonald, 66. This is a company with nearly all its operations in India, and so, naturally, is its board.

To have a primary share listing in London, I think it should have at least two UK directors, of whom one is either chairman or senior independent director.

But the regulators do not require this, and City investors do not seem to care so long as the shares rise. And rise they certainly have - more than trebling since the float, lifting Vedanta's value to 3.7bn.

It has ridden the wave of rising metal prices, but has also set a track record of delivering projects on time and on budget - and funded from cash flow.

This year broker Citigroup estimates Vedanta's production at 455,000 tonnes of copper, 325,000 of lead and zinc, and 222,000 of aluminium. The company's own figures are higher, but what matters is the huge growth potential. Agarwal has set a target of 1m tonnes of each category.

That depends on three large projects. The trickiest is to make aluminium at Orissa, on the Bay of Bengal, where it plans to extract bauxite from a 'sacred' mountain. Protests about this prolonged Vedanta's London agm this week.

The dividend yield is a skimpy 0.9%, but if Agarwal can deliver his growth targets and prices stay high, profits could almost treble this year.

Brokers expect a rise from $934m (497m) pretax to $2.5bn (1.3bn) with earnings per share of 190p, to put the shares at only 6.8 times.

After an excellent run, Vedanta still looks cheap, though one day even the mining 'supercycle' will end.

Strike starts at Chile copper mine

By Pav Jordan Mon Aug 7, 2:05 PM ET

SANTIAGO, Chile (Reuters) - Workers drew first blood in their fight with Chile's Escondida copper mine, cutting 60 percent from daily production as they walked off the job to demand a wage and benefits hike from its foreign owners.
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"Around 60 percent of output," is being affected by the strike, BHP Billiton spokesman Mauro Valdes told Reuters on Monday, hours after the widely anticipated walkout. Workers said the strike cut production by as much as 80 percent.

The mine, the world's largest copper mine, applied an immediate contingency plan to maintain basic output, but Valdes could not say what the effects of a prolonged strike might be.

"Minera Escondida reiterates it desire to maintain dialogue (with workers) and trusts the strike will be carried out in a responsible and legal form," the company said in a statement.

Workers at Escondida, which produces about 20 percent of Chile's copper and accounts for 2.5 percent of the country's gross domestic product, are demanding a new contract to replace a 2003 deal that was signed when copper prices were about a fifth of what they are now.

Local television showed union workers tossing rocks the size of basketballs onto the road leading to the mine in northern Chile to obstruct the potential entry of transports carrying replacement personnel.

Talks between the company and the union grew increasingly combative in recent weeks, with each accusing the other of not ceding ground in their demands.

Union President Luis Troncoso said there was no plan to halt the strike until the company improves its offer.

Workers say they have the support of other Chilean mining unions, and that their fight could influence the outcome of upcoming negotiations at Codelco, Chile's state copper miner and the world's largest producer of the red metal.

"I think we are fortifying the (national) union movement," Troncoso said.

BHP Billiton (BHP.AX), the world's largest miner, owns 57.5 percent of the open-pit mine, while No. 2 Rio Tinto Ltd (RIO.AX) has a 30 percent stake.

While workers are demanding a large increase in salary and benefits that reflect soaring copper prices, the company seeks to protect itself from the next cyclical downturn in prices for the red metal.

Before the strike, Escondida was expected to produce close to 1.3 million tonnes of copper in 2006, about the same as it did in 2005. That is roughly 3,500 tonnes of copper a day.

Copper futures in New York opened lower Monday but prices received a slight boost as the Escondida strike started.

More than 2,000 union workers were to take part in the strike at Escondida after negotiations for a new wage contract failed even after government mediation.

Union Secretary Pedro Marin said the workers would also march in Antofagasta, the major city in the mining region, to press their demands for a better wage deal.

He expected to draw support from others who use the city as a base and work in other mines in the region.

Chile is the world's largest copper producer and host to many international miners.

Marin said the union planned to employ noisy tactics like the ones used by Chilean students in nationwide protests in June. Those strikes ended in sometimes violent clashes with police.

Nearly 1 million Chilean students took part in nationwide strikes in early June as they demanded more education funding in destructive marches in the capital Santiago.

Associated Press - 8 August 2006

Strike begins at copper mine in Chile

Workers at the world's largest privately owned copper mine in northern Chile went on strike Monday to press their demand for better pay, and by midday production was down by 60 percent, a company official reported.

Union spokesman Pedro Marin said workers were gathering at a plaza in Antofagasta, 1,600 kilometers (995 miles) north of Santiago, for a planned march.

Other miners blocked an access road to the mine with rocks and parked buses.

A union assembly was scheduled for late Monday and a vote on the company's contract proposal was likely, Marin said. The proposal was rejected by the union leadership.

The company has called its contract offer, made in government-mediated talks, final. It includes a 3 percent salary increase and one-time bonus of US$17,000 (13,200).

The workers are asking for a 13 percent wage increase and a bonus of US$21,190 (18,400).

There was no immediate comment by the company on Monday's work stoppage but it said earlier that it would implement a "contingency plan." No details of the plan were announced, but Marin said it includes hiring around 1,000 outside workers and contractors to maintain some production.

Around noon Monday, a company spokesman, Mauro Valdes, told the Santiago daily El Mercurio that production had dropped by around 60 percent.

Escondida produces around 3.6 metric tons (4 tons) a day, or around one quarter of Chile's total output. Chile is the world's largest copper exporter.

The Australian-British consortium BHP Billiton PLC owns 57.5 percent of the mine, while Rio Tinto PLC, also Australian-British, holds 30 percent, and the Mitsubishi Corp.-led Japanese consortium 10 percent.

Main markets for the mine's production include Brazil, China, France, Japan and South Korea.

Escondida miners reject BHP Billiton pay offer

Workers at the world's largest copper mine in Chile have rejected an offer from owner BHP Billiton and have said they anticipate a walk-out that could last a month.

The workers late Monday (local time) refused to vote on a proposal from the Anglo-Australian resources giant put forward on Friday, leaving the mine's production at less than half of normal.

In a meeting of nearly 2,000 workers, the miners decided the 3 per cent wage hike plus $US16,000 per-worker bonus the company offered was not enough, union spokesman Pedro Marin said.

They are seeking a 13 per cent pay increase and a $US30,000 payment per miner, he said.

The strike began Monday (local time), jeopardising 8 per cent of global copper production and spurring prices to a three-week high.

The mine's main customers are Japan, Germany, Canada, China, Sweden, Brazil, South Korea and France.

Miners say their demands reflect a tripling in global copper prices since the previous collective bargaining agreement reached three years ago.

Escondida produces on average 125,000 tonnes of copper per year, nearly 20 per cent of total production in Chile, the world's largest copper producer.

-AFP

Mineweb - 09-AUG-06 - By: Dorothy Kosich

Labor strife could impact up to 16% of copper supplies


As BHP Billiton declared force majeure Tuesday for copper concentrate delivery and suspended cathode production at the world's largest copper mine, Escondida's reduced production--if compounded by additional labor strife at other copper mines--could result in the loss of 16% of the world's copper mine production this year.


Meanwhile, Japanese and Chinese metals smelter companies said Tuesday that it's too early to determine the impact of the Escondida mine strike in Chile on copper concentrate smelting. The workers at the world's largest copper mine Tuesday predicted their walkout could last as long as a month.

Sydney-based Commodities Analyst Alan Heap of Citigroup said the "copper industry has been plagued by union disputes for months now, as minesite workers seek a greater share in their booming sector." In fact, Heap declared that he expects more of the same this month as 2,000 workers at Escondida went on strike this week and their Peruvian colleagues at Antamina want an 18% wage increase. Miners at British Columbia's Highland Valley copper mine are expecting a "generous September contract renewal,"" he added.

Managers at Falconbridge's Lomas Bayas copper mine in Chile averted a strike last May with a deal that included an 8 % pay raise and $4,400 individual worker bonus payment. The FMC union, which represents the striking miners at Escondida, is asking for a 13% pay raise and a $30,000 net bonus per workers. Union Secretary Pedro Marin said Chile's copper companies will have combined profits of $19.15 billion this year. Meanwhile the copper price has risen from 67-cents when the last wage contract was negotiated in 2003 to $3.50 per pound.

Later this year, the world's largest copper miner state-owned Codelco of Chile will have salary negotiations with its own workforce. The Escondida walkout is believed to be influencing the future of the Codelco talks as the Chilean Government scrutinizes BHP's responses to the labor dispute.

Last month, Mexico's Grupo Mexico fired around 2,000 workers at its La Caridad copper mine in the Sonora State in the wake of a strike to protest the firing of a union chief, which began in March. Meanwhile, managers at the Konkola copper/cobalt mine in Zambia agreed to a 20% hike in wages in July. The mine is a joint venture between U.K.-based Vedanta Resources and the Zambian Government.

Heap said that "it's not surprising that copper's price is sensitive to this news. These strike-bound operations alone represent 2.2MTpy of copper-producing capacity or 16% of the forecast mine production in 2006." He estimated that year-to-date total contained metal production lost to strike action stands at 79k without considering loses caused by equipment failures and material shortages.

Heap said that Japan's smelters are most vulnerable to the Escondida strike since they depend on 70% of the Chilean copper mine's annual output. Escondida produces roughly 20% of Chile's total annual production. The company's products are shipped to Japan, Germany, Canada, China, Sweden, Brazil, South Korea and France.

Reuters reported that officials of both Japanese and Chinese metals smelting companies expected a prolonged strike at Escondida, but explained it was too early to determine its impact on their production. Japanese smelters are believed to hold about one month's worth of copper concentrate inventories, according to sources quoted by Reuters.

Copper is used in electrical, electronic, and other applications, as well as transportation systems, housing, commercial construction and appliances. The base metal is used in plumbing, automobile, trains and planes, and most other machinery that uses electricity or has water flowing through its engines. The average American home has at least 30 to 40 motors that rely on copper wires inside the motor.

A force majeure is a contract clause that releases a company from its contractual obligations due to an extraordinary event beyond its control.

MCX expecting three-fold jump in daily turnover


Ludhiana, Aug 09, 2006 (Asia Pulse Data Source via COMTEX) -- Enthused by the growing participation of traders and users in metal trading, the Multi Commodity Exchange (MCX) of India Limited is anticipating more than a three-fold increase in the per day value of trading and volume of metals traded by the end of this fiscal.

"With more and more traders and users of non-ferrous metals participating in metal trading, we expect that the daily trading and volume of metals, including copper, zinc and aluminum will increase over three times against present position by the end of this financial year," MCX, Manager (Product Knowledge Management), Ankit Singhal told PTI here.

Singhal was here to attend a seminar on metal trading.

At present, the per day turnover (single sided) of copper, zinc and aluminum in MCX stands at Rs 900 crore, Rs 150 crore and Rs 50 crore respectively. But the exchange expects daily turnover of Rs 3,000 crore in copper, Rs 400 crore in zinc and Rs 200 crore in aluminum by the end of this fiscal.

Similarly, it hopes that the per day volume size should jump to 50,000 MT in copper, 20,000 MT in zinc and 4,000 MT in aluminum.

The commodity exchange expects maximum participation in metal trading from Maharashtra, Delhi, Gujarat, Punjab and Madhya Pradesh.

The MCX has also tied up with Comex (New York based exchange) for copper and London Metal Exchange (LME) for other metal commodities for sharing expertise and knowledge in the trading.