Indian Tata Steel, the world's sixth largest steelmaker, plans to become a partner in the $4 billion KeMag property, which is 100 percent owned by the Canadian publicly-traded mining company New Millennium Capital Corp. and has iron ore reserves of over two billion mt.
Tata Steel Global Mineral Holdings, an indirect wholly-owned subsidiary of Tata Steel, is the largest shareholder with a 19.9 percent stake in New Millennium, which is Tata Steel's third overseas iron ore venture.
The KeMag project includes a mine and concentrator at Harris Lake, Quebec, and a 750 km slurry pipeline to a pellet plant and ship loading facility at Pointe-Noire, Quebec.
According to the positive pre-feasibility study results, the KeMag project will have an initial capital cost of $3.8 billion and a working capital need of $26.4 million. The net present value of the project, before corporate and mining taxes, is $7.3 billion. While the proven and probable mineral reserves are 2.141 billion mt, it is expected to have an annual production capacity of 15 million mt for pellets and 7 million mt for concentrate
The next stage for the KeMag project is to initiate a feasibility study. Any successful study would lead to project financing in 2011 and a production start by 2014.