Tata Steel Titanium Dioxide Project
  
Location :  Tuticorin district of Tamil Nadu
 
Capacity : 60,000 tonnes per annum of titanium dioxide
   
Focus : To create a titanium dioxide manufacturing facility in stages.

After the mineral sand sector was liberalized by Government of India in 1998, the company applied for prospecting licenses for prospecting in-land teri mineral sand deposits in Tamil Nadu. On 27th June 2002, Tata Steel Limited had signed a MoU with the Government of Tamil Nadu for its Titania Project involving mining, mineral separation and value addition. The company intends to go in for the maximum value addition i.e. Pigment production in phases and subject to techno economic viability.

The Company was granted prospecting license over 80 sq.km area by Government of Tamil Nadu in the districts of Tirunelveli and Tutitcorin with due approval from Government of India. After obtaining NOC from DAE, Environmental Site Clearance from MoEF and with the consent of the patta land owners, the company carried out exploration.

The feasibility study was conducted with the help of a Consortium Partners comprising of Outokumpu Finland's physical separation division based in USA, Outokumpu-Lurgi,Germany, Pincock Allen and Holt, USA, a resource and mining consulting company and L&T. The Company is supported by MN Dasturco as Owners Consultant and TZMI, Australian based Marketing and Process Consultants. The study was designed to be carried out in two parts, one the geological resources evaluation and the other the mineral separation, validation and optimization of flow sheets.  The mineral assemblages in the deposits (Sattankulam and Kuttam) are similar and found to comprise 65-70% ilmenite, 4-6% rutile, 4% zircon and sillimanite 15-16%. The feasibility study has established adequate mineral resource for the techno-economic sustainability of the project.

Environmental Impact Assessment of the project was also carried out and Environmental Management Plan has also been drawn with the assistance of MIN-MEC Consultancy. Manonmaniam Sundaranar University of Tamil Nadu was engaged to carry out radiation-related environmental studies and Tamil Nadu Agriculture University was engaged to evolve mine rehabilitation programmes.

Ilmenite production forms the basis of production capacity. The project is preparing for a production 5 lakh tonnes of ilmenite per annum initially, which will be enhanced to 10 lakhs tonnes later. The project will directly employ the services of about 400 employees and about 2000 more in the nearby villages is likely to be indirectly benefited. Tata Business Unit will also evolve and implement need-based social development programmes, so that benefits reach the entire population around the project site.

The stage-1 of the project involves developing mining and mineral separation facilities. Mining of Teri sand will be done using a combination of Front-end loaders and conveyor system. Run of Mine will be fed to a Primary Concentration Plant, recovery from this plant will form the feed for Mineral Separation Plant. The mining and processing of in-land Teri sand deposits of Tamil Nadu is quite challenging, owing to high slime content in the deposit and non availability of water for processing. Despite this, Tata Steel Limited with its rich experience of mining and value addition is committed to develop these deposits into a world class mine, which will bring socio-economic changes in people living in that area.

The land acquisition and environmental clearance processes are in progress. The production is expected to start sometime in the middle of 2008.