Tata Steel’s arm in Canada is expected to commission later this month its integrated all-weather iron ore processing facility near its mine site in the North American country.

Tata Steel Minerals, Canada (TSMC), the 80 per cent Tata Steel-owned operating entity, said it expected to start operations at the processing unit this month. The main integrated unit, a key part of its direct shipping ore project, would produce fines and pellets for use in Tata Steel’s European operations.

Situated within the licence area in sub-arctic eastern Canada, the unit at its peak capacity would process 6 million tonnes of iron ore a year.

In a posting on its website, Rajesh Sharma, CEO and MD TSMC, said the main processing facility is expected to be commissioned by March 2015.

Capacity ramp up

He further said that the processing capacity would gradually reach the peak in the next three quarters.

“We will have a ramp up period over the subsequent two to three quarters. At steady state, we’ll be producing the planned capacity of six million tonnes a year”, the website quoted him as saying.

TSMC, after taking up the DSO project in December 2010 in it licence area of Millennium Iron Range, located in the two Canadian provinces of Newfoundland and Labrador, and Quebec, has been conducting mining, seasonal processing and trial shipment to European units of Tata Steel.

Sharma said key benefits from the Canadian DSO project to Tata Steel Europe would be a secure supply of raw materials after stabilisation of the iron ore processing operations. Tata Steel’s European units unlike its Indian operations did not enjoy raw material security (captive mines) and got long-term supplies from Brazil. The Canadian supplies, according to sources, would be cheaper in terms of logistic cost.

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