Tata Steel's R&D is celebrating 70 years of its existence. As a part of these celebrations an international conference was jointly organised by R&D Division of Tata Steel with Indian Institute of Mineral Engineers (IIME), Jamshedpur Chapter, on beneficiation of fines and its technology (ICBeneFiT - 2007). This is a two day seminar that began today, December 10, 2007 and will conclude tomorrow December 11, 2007 at the SNTI Auditorium in Jamshedpur. Tata Steel has the credit of establishing the first industrial R&D in the iron and steel sector in Asia, way back in 1937.

The dignitaries who graced the occasion include Mr. H M Nerurkar; COO (Steel), Tata Steel who was the Chief guest, Dr. Debashish Bhattacharjee, Chief, R&D and Scientific Services who gave the welcome address.

While inaugurating the function, Mr. H.M. Nerurkar, COO (Steel) in his address requested the experts and the participants of the Seminar to focus on beneficiation of low-grade ores and production of better quality concentrate without losing yield as these are the two big challenges before mineral industry today. He also spoke that technological development should grow in the field of beneficiation of fines as this is the need of the day.

The key note address was delivered by Prof. Roe-Hoan Yoon of Virginia Tech, USA on predictive model of flotation. He shared his vast experience on flotation with other dignitaries and participants.

Total of 14 invited speakers from all over world will deliver lectures at this conference. A large number of participants representing industries, research organization, and academia from all over India will be attending this 2-day international conference.

About Tata Steel
Established in 1907 as Asia's first integrated private sector steel company, Tata Steel in 2006 on a combined basis is the world's sixth largest steel producer in terms of actual crude steel production with geographic footprints in India, South East Asia, UK and Europe. With the recent acquisition of Corus Limited, the combined enterprise has an aggregate crude steel production capacity of around 28.1 million tonnes with approximately 82,700 employees across the four continents. The establishment of a Research Department in Tata Steel is the first of its kind in India which was established way back in 1935. It stands as a testimony to the spirits of the early pioneers and the vision of the founder of Tata Steel. The Company's strength in research and development has consistently helped to meet the challenges of growth and change.