Tata Steel Global Minerals Holdings Pte Limited, a wholly owned subsidiary of Tata Steel, has established a joint venture with New Millennium Capital Corporation for operating the DSO mining project in Canada.
 
The joint venture company, named Tata Steel Minerals Canada Ltd, will acquire all of the DSO mining claims and related assets, carry out detailed engineering and construction and will be responsible for the operations of the DSO project.

Tata Steel will own 80 per cent of the joint venture company and New Millennium Capital Corporation the remaining 20 per cent. Tata Steel would reimburse 80 per cent of the DSO project costs to New Millennium.

The joint venture project has been incorporated in accordance with the terms of an agreement signed on 6 November 2009 between Tata Steel Global Minerals Holdings Pte Limited and New Millennium Capital, Tata Steel said in a release.

Tata Steel has appointed four directors - Partha Sengupta (vice president, raw materials), Rajesh Sharma (executive in-charge, Southern Africa), Dinesh Shastri (general manager, global mineral resources) and Sandip Biswas (group head - corporate finance and treasury) to the joint venture company's board of directors.

New Millennium has appointed Roy Hudson, currently secretary and a director, as its lone member on the joint venture board.

"With the formation of Tata Steel Minerals Canada Ltd, New Millennium has taken another important step towards achieving its goal of becoming an iron ore producer. This joint venture demonstrates New Millennium's ability to successfully commercialise our mineral assets," Robert Martin, NML CEO and president, said.

New Millennium Capital controls the emerging Millennium iron range, located in Newfoundland and Labrador and in Quebec, which holds the world's largest undeveloped magnetic iron ore deposits. The corporation is also advancing to near term production its DSO (Direct Shipping Ore) project.

Tata Steel, one of the top 10 steel producers of the world, owns 27.4 per cent of New Millennium and is the corporation's largest shareholder and strategic partner.

Tata Steel has exercised its exclusive option to participate in the DSO project and has a commitment to take the resulting production, and has an exclusive right to negotiate and settle a proposed transaction in respect of the LabMag project and the KeMag project, New Millennium said in a release.

The Millennium iron range currently hosts two advanced projects - LabMag containing 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 percent Fe and 1.2 billion tonnes of inferred resources at an average grade of 29.3 per cent.

KéMag 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.

New Millinneum's DSO project contains 64.1 million tonnes of proven and probable mineral reserves at an average grade of 58.8 per cent Fe, 8.1 million tonnes of measured and indicated mineral resources at an average grade of 58.8 per cent Fe, 7.2 million tonnes of inferred resources at an average grade of 56.8 per cent Fe and about 40.0 - 45.0 million tonnes of historical resources that are not currently in compliance with NI 43-101.

The joint venture will add shareholder value through responsible and expeditious development of the Millennium iron range and other mineral projects to create a new large source of raw materials for the world's iron and steel industries, New Millennium said in its release.

Asia's first integrated private sector steel company, Tata Steel Group is among the top ten global steel companies with an annual crude steel capacity of over 28 million
tonnes per annum (mtpa). It is now the world's second-most geographically-diversified steel producer, with operations in 26 countries and a commercial presence in over 50 countries.