OREANDA-NEWS. March 22, 2011. Sesa Goa Limited ("SGL" or the "Company") would like to bring to the notice of all its stakeholders certain clarifications in regards to the article filed by the news wire " Indo Asian News Service" on 17 March 2011 headlined as "Vedanta Resources mines operated illegally in Goa: Minister."

Below is the factual information on the complaints pertaining to the Forest Department relating to Sesa Goa mines.

In the recent written replies submitted by Hon'ble Forest Minister to the Legislative Assembly which states that, during last three years (FY2008, FY2009 and FY2010) there were 17 complaints received by the Forest Department of these five relate to mines operated by Sesa Goa.

The extract of replies submitted by Minister on the five cases pertaining to Sesa Goa on case to case basis is as given below.

1.         Complaint against T C No. 20/1954: Survey No.8, 11, 12, 16, and 17 forms part of Working Plan. Letter sent to stop non forestry activity (using area for parking the trucks) within the above sy.nos. The same non forestry activity was stopped in Forest Area.

2.         Complaint against T C No. 5/1954: Survey No.4 and 8 forms part of Working Plan. Letter sent to stop non forestry activity (using area for parking the trucks) within the above sy.nos. The same non forestry activity was stopped in Forest Area.

3.         R.O.C. No. 16/RFO/Keri/09-10 dt. 02/11/2009 against Shri Santosh AS.Anurekar. Senior Executive of Dempo mining corporation Ltd. Investigation is in progress.

4.         R.O.C.No.24/RFO/Keri/09-10 dt.09/02/2010 against Shri Raghunath Vitthal Kamat case is submitted to Sub Divisional Forest Officer, Mapusa.

5.         R.O.C. No. RFO /SGM/3/09-10dated 18/06/2009. Case closed with warning to the mine owner.

As is apparent from the above extracts, the media has made an incomplete and thereby incorrect representation on the matter. Though the written reply submitted by Hon'ble Forest Minister to the Assembly comprises of status of each complaint, in the media only the complaint part of the reply pertaining to Sesa Goa mines has been reported ignoring the fact that these pertain to issues which are trivial in nature, closed and involve third party.

As on date, three complaints have been closed and two are in process including one which involves a third party and Sesa has nothing to do with that.

We believe our operations have been a benchmark in the industry in Scientific Mining, Environment Management and Restoration and as a responsible miner, Sesa Goa remains fully committed to operating all its operations legally.