Icy Canada may feed Tata Steel furnaces

Artic Canada could provide long-term iron ore security to Tata Steel. New Millennium Iron Corp, in which Tata Steel is the strategic partner and largest investor (27 per cent) and has the exclusive right to have access to the world's largest low grade iron ore reserves in Canada, has begun feasibility study.

The Tata Steel Managing Director, Mr H.M. Nerurkar, admitted to Business Line that the ambitious project was a “big game”. He said it was progressing in the right direction but would take some more years to commence production and laying of the logistic infrastructure. According to industry sources, in the next five years, the project was likely to commence feeding the Tata Steel's entire European operations.

The Canadian company controls the Millennium Iron Range, located in the Province of Newfoundland and Labrador and in the Province of Quebec, which holds one of the world's largest undeveloped magnetic iron ore deposits.

The Millennium Iron Range currently hosts two exploratory projects —LabMag and KeMag. LabMag contains 3.5 billion tonnes of proven and probable reserves at a grade of 29.6 per cent Fe plus 1.0 billion tonnes of Measured and Indicated resources at an average grade of 29.5 per cent Fe and 1.2 billion tonnes of inferred resources at an average grade of 29.3 per cent Fe.

KeMag contains 2.1 billion tonnes of proven and probable reserves at an average grade of 31.3 per cent Fe, 0.3 billion tonnes of measured and indicated resources at an average grade of 31.3 per cent Fe and 1.0 billion tonnes of inferred resources at an average grade of 31.2 per cent Fe.

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