Newly appointed chief executive officer of Vedanta Resources Tom Albanese has told the company’s board and workforce that the fatality rates at its mining operations is “unacceptable”. In the FY14 annual report, uploaded on its website on Wednesday, Albanese said he is conducting a personal and thorough appraisal of the safety management, contractor management and compliance and internal safety leadership with the clear target of moving towards a zero-harm record. In an interview published in the annual report, Vedanta chief Anil Agarwal and CEO Albanese said the company hopes to restart iron mining in Goa after the monsoon. Excerpts: How will the executive management of Vedanta group change with a new CEO (Albanese)? Agarwal: We will work closely to take the company forward. The board and I will retain the responsibility for strategic development, including M&A, and Tom will lead the business, driving operational excellence, developing our stakeholder engagement and taking forward corporate initiatives to simplify the group structure. Vedanta has made huge investments in aluminium production but you don’t have a captive source of bauxite yet and have faced criticism about this. So what are your plans now? Agarwal: We have inked an MoU with the Odisha government under which we are assured of 150-million tonne of bauxite supply for our processing facility and we will continue to work closely with the state government. From our perspective, we have made it clear that Vedanta will not source bauxite from Niyamgiri deposit without the consent of the local community. Albanese: While Vedanta has done a commendable job in terms of community development around the Lanjigarh refinery, these deeds have unfortunately been overshadowed by the controversy at Niyamgiri. We will now focus to other resources on a regional basis which can be developed in a manner consistent with global norms and expectations. Even though we do not have sufficient captive feed currently, we continue to operate our aluminium smelters at Jharsuguda in Odisha and Korba in Chhatisgarh efficiently. Court orders to restart mining in Karnataka and Goa were issued after a long period of bans. But all these issues do not seem to have been resolved. What is the latest and will you get back to your pre-ban production levels? Albanese: We restarted our operations in Karnataka in December and have been selling ore through government sponsored e-auctions. I see the authorisation to restart mining in Karnataka and the Supreme Court order in Goa as an encouraging sign, confirming that we are gaining momentum in the right direction. We are currently working with the Goa government and the ministry of environment and forests to obtain necessary approvals to restart mining in Goa. We hope to start production after the monsoon season this year. Agarwal: The issues in Goa were driven by environmental concerns as mining increased significantly in response to record iron ore prices and access to port through inland waterways. Since many small unorganised miners sprang up, the government restricted mining across the state to ensure responsible mining and, this affected large, organised miners like us. What are your priorities going forward and do you envisage any changes in strategy? Agarwal: Right now our primary objective is to deleverage from the cash flow that the business is generating as our capital intensive projects are nearing completion and ramping up production.