Tata Steel-promoted Tata Metaliks today said the Centre has approved its prospecting license for iron ore mines in Maharashtra.
"Government of Maharashtra has conveyed approval of the Central Government...For grant of prospecting license for iron ore over an area of 154.80 hectares in village Dongarpal, Sindhudurg in Maharashtra for a period of two years," the company said in a filing to the Bombay Stock Exchange.
Prospecting is the process by which companies assess the quality and quantity of minerals in an area. Post-prospecting, the allottees apply for mining lease of the prospected area from the government.
Tata Metaliks, the country's largest pig iron producer, has a plant each at Kharagpur in West Bengal and Redi in Maharashtra with a combined annual capacity of 6.5 lakh tonnes of pig iron, which is used by foundry industry and also in steel-making.
Tata Metaliks is in the process of setting up a 60-lakh- tonne sinter plant at Kharagpur. In Karnataka it has received the state government's go-ahead for setting up an iron and steel plant in Haveri district.
The proposed sinter plant is expected to commission by March 2010 while the time-frame for the steel plant has not yet decided.
