The Tatas and the Canadian iron ore prospecting company, New Millennium Capital Corporation, propose to start mining and direct shipment of ore to Corus from April-June quarter of 2011.
The Canadian company hopes to complete the feasibility study for the project in July-September quarter this year. The Tatas are scheduled to approve the project, known as direct shipping ore (DSO) project, by December 2009.
The Tatas, already having 19.9 per cent stake in New Millennium, are to start funding for the project once the necessary approvals have been obtained, most probably by the last quarter of the current year (2009). They have also committed to buy the total production from the project. New Millennium’s ore deposits are located in Newfoundland, Labrador and Quebec.
To aggressively advance the DSO project, the Tatas, who will be the strategic, technical and commercial partner, have moved Mr Suren Rao, CEO of Tata’s Canada project, to New Millennium’s head office in Montreal.
In a recent filing to stock exchanges, New Millennium has said that several timelines in cooperation with Tatas are being set. The Tatas, it is learnt, have proposed a special steering committee of six representatives, three each from Tatas and New Millennium, for the purpose of optimising some of the pre-feasibility assumptions relating to the wash plant process and ore handling system.
The optimisation studies, which could significantly improve the already robust — 39 per cent — internal rate of return, is expected to take about two months and result in a DSO feasibility study completion in the third quarter this year.
New Millennium, currently negotiating a draft joint venture agreement with Tata Steel Global Mineral Holdings Pte Ltd, expects signing of the agreement before June-end. The company is working on acquiring construction permits for DSO project and submission of the final environmental impact statement.
In another project of New Millennium — LabMag — in which Tatas have an “exclusive right to negotiate and settle a proposed transaction”, the Indian conglomerate has begun discussion to determine the project’s development possibilities.
A due diligence exercise, which focuses on reduction of the project costs, is also on the anvil, New Millennium stated. The feasibility study for LabMag project may begin after July this year.
Source: The Hindu
No comments:
Post a Comment