Ajoy K Das

Kolkata: Tata Steel and Brazilian mining major Vale, along with other joint venture partners will undertake large-scale expansion of the Carborough Downs coal mine in central Queensland, Australia.

Tata Steel’s participation in the expansion,which will cost Australian $400 million, is part of the Indian steel major’s strategy of securing raw material security, following its acquisition of Corus.

While the company’s Indian operations are self sufficient in raw materials, given its captive iron and coal mines, taken along with Corus, its overall raw-material self-sufficiency drops to 39%. In case of iron ore, the group’s self-sufficiency is 63%,while in case of coking coal, it is around 16%.

With the acquisition of Corus, Tata Steel’s total crude steel production has risen to 28.1 million tonne. Carborough Downs is a mine operated by Carborough Downs Coal Management, which is owned 80% by Vale. The rest is with joint venture partners Tata Steel (5%), Nippon Steel (5%), Posco (5%), JFE Steel (2.5%) and JFE Shoji (2.5%).

With the capital investment firmed up, construction on the new underground mine is scheduled to start this month and commissioning of largescale production is slated by mid-2009.

Besides, the investment commitment, Tata Steel will contribute its experience in operating mines and the best practices for mining geology and environment and project management to the project.

Source : DNA