Tata Steel on Monday signed an agreement with its consortium partners for setting up its titanium dioxide project in Tuticorin district of Tamil Nadu.
The consortium comprises Outokumpu Finland's physical separation division based in the US and Outokumpu-Lurgi, Germany and Pincock Allen Holt, USA, an international resource and mining consulting company, and Larsen and Toubro.
Tata Steel's agreement with the consortium is targeted to help in the completion of the first phase of the project within 20 months.
They will carry out the feasibility study, involving geological exploration, resources evaluation, preparation of mining schemes, metallurgical test work for mineral separation and ilmenite upgradation and financial analysis and assessment of techno-economic viability.
The project will be undertaken in two phases.
The first phase will involve mining and separation of ilmenite and some other minerals and its subsequent upgradation into synthetic rutile or titanium dioxide slag and the second phase will involve titanium dioxide pigment.
Tata Steel has been granted prospecting licence by Tamil Nadu over an area of 80 sq km and the required consent from existing landowners has also been obtained by the company.
It is understood that pursuant to the interests in the titanium business, the steel major has also applied for prospecting licence over an area of 5,100 hectare in the districts of Kasaragod and Kannur in north Kerala.
Preliminary discussions have also been held with the Kerala government on the possibility of working together to harness the full potential of the explored and unexplored mineral sands deposits there.
Titanium dioxide is widely used in the paints industry as it increases the opacity of the paint film.