Tata Steel Ltd.

In a move that will boost raw material flows to European operations, Tata Steel is planning to commence production from Direct Shipping Ore (DSO) Project in Canada by year-end. The project, a JV where Tata Steel Minerals Canada holds 80% stake and New Millenium Iron Corporation - the remaining 20%, is expected to begin during the October-December quarter. A target of 1 million tonnes (MT) of iron ore has been kept for the current fiscal, which will be scaled up to over 3 MT in 2014-15.

The DSO Project is run by Tata Steel Minerals Canada and contains 64.1 MT of proven and probable reserves having an average grade of 58.8% iron. It also has about 60 MT indicated, inferred and historical resources of various grades of iron. Further, Tata Steel has committed to invest about 300 million Canadian dollars on the DSO project. It would take 100% of the DSO project's iron ore products for the life of the mining operations. Iron ore, then would be shipped to Tata Steel's European operations as pellets and sinter fines.