By June 2013, Vendanta Resources expects its subsidiary Sesa Goa to resume mining in Karnataka and the firm is said is in the process of securing necessary clearances.

This information was shared by MS Mehta, CEO of Vedanta in a conference call, while announcing the annual results of the company.

Pointing out that Sesa Goa does not plan to export the raw material from the state, Mehta said there is a "significant latent potential demand of iron ore within the state of Karnataka itself. He also noted that iron ore produced in Karnataka does not have the permission for exports.

The Supreme Court lifted ban on several mines in Karnataka including Sesa Goa's mine in Chitradurga district. However, its lease for the mine had expired in October last year and with that the forest clearance had also ended.

While the company can begin mining on the Category-B mine on deemed basis till the renewal of the lease, it requires forest clearance to do the same.

Last month, Sesa Goa's Managing Director PK Mukherjee had said the company is in "advanced stages" of securing forest clearance for resuming mining.

Before the imposition of ban by the Supreme Court in July-August 2011, the mine could produce 6 million tonne per annum (mn tpa) of ore. Now its capacity has been curtailed to 2.29 mn tpa as the apex court has fixed an upper ceiling of 30 mn tpa for iron ore production in Karnataka.