Tata Steel and its Canada-based partner New Millennium Capital Corp (NMC) is starting the feasibility study of the Direct Shipping Ore (DSO) project and have set up a joint steering committee to monitor its progress, which NMC is scheduled to complete in the July-September quarter of 2009. Tata Steel holds a 19.9% equity stake in NMC, a listed Canadian company.
The world?s sixth largest steel company has, by virtue of its stake in NMC, the option of participating in the DSO project and the LabMag taconite project. Taconite is an iron bearing, high silica, flint-like rock.
While DSO properties have estimated reserves of around 100 million tonne (mt), termed ?historical resources? (mainly, iron ore), LabMag contains 3.5 billion tonne of ?proven and probable reserves?, 1 billion tonne of ?measured and indicated resources? and 1.2 billion tonne of ?inferred resources?. Tata Steel believes that once developed, these deposits can supply a large part of its requirement for pellet feed in Europe .
The Canadian company has, working closely with Tata Steel, already completed optimisation studies that were designed to maximise the commercially desirable characteristics of the product. A joint ?steering committee?, comprising three members each of NMC and Tata Steel, has now been formed to monitor the progress of the feasibility study and provide necessary direction to ensure its timely completion. NMC?s technical team is supposed to work closely with engineers from Tata Steel?s Global Mineral Resources Group and its R&D centre.