The Union mines ministry has approved the allocation of Latua iron ore mine to Ispat, a government source said.

The Jharkhand government had in February this year sought the Centre's approval for allocating a mining lease of 520 hectares of Latua mines, which has an estimated reserve of over 100 million tonnes and iron content of 64 to 65 per cent, to Ispat Industries.

"We have recommended Latua iron ore mine in Chaibasa to Ispat Industries, but are yet to receive the letter of allocation from the Centre," a senior official of the mines department in Jharkhand said.

When contacted, a spokesperson of Ispat Industries declined to comment.

Ispat Industries had signed a memorandum of understanding with the Jharkhand government in 2007 for setting up a 2.8 million tonnes greenfield steel plant in the West Singhbhum district with an estimated investment of Rs 7,000 crore. The company plans to scale up the production capacity of the proposed plant to 5 million tonnes.

The steel major would require a total of 250 million tonnes of iron ore for a span of 30 years when its plant reaches optimum production capacity of 5 million tonnes.

The coal ministry had recently allocated the Behrabandh coking coal block in Madhya Pradesh to Ispat Industries on a sharing basis with Essar, Mukund Steel and Ind Synergy. Of the total 170 million tonnes of the total reserves in the captive block, Ispat got 70 million tonnes.