British mining giant Vedanta said on Tuesday it is going ahead with plans to mine a bauxite-rich hillside in Orissa considered sacred land by local tribals, and urged two international NGOs to give up their protest campaign.

"We are proceeding with the mining plans but there are still a few permissions that need to be granted," Zoe Watt, a spokeswoman for Vedanta Resources, told IANS after a high-profile protest at the Annual General Meeting of shareholders in London on Monday.

The protest was led by international human rights campaigner Bianca Jagger and Indian-origin musician Nitin Sawhney but Indian author and activist Arundhati Roy was unable to attend.