According to TATA Steel CFO Mr Koushik Chatterjee the company has been given the working permission for an iron ore mine in Ankua in Jharkhand. The total area of the mine is 1800 hectares and it is said to be holding about 400 million tonne of iron ore. TATA Steel said that it had received the prospecting licence from the central government last year, but to begin exploration work, it needed the state government’s working permission, which it has received now. It may be noted that Essar Steel and JSW Steel also have prospecting licenses for iron ore mines in the Ankua region. They have been given licenses for 547 hectares and 1388 hectares of mines, respectively. TATA Steel is expanding steelmaking capacity at its flagship Jamshedpur facility to 10 million tonne by next year and is looking to source iron ore from the Ankua mine. Post prospecting, TATA Steel will apply for a mining lease licence, after which the company would be able to mine iron ore from the region and feed it to its blast furnaces.