TATA Steel has initiated discussion with the government of British Columbia in Canada to acquire coking coal mines. TATA is looking to obtain a coking coal mine for its European operations, which currently have zero raw material integration. The company is also looking to acquire coking coal mines as of rising coking coal prices. British Columbia is very rich in coking coal with an estimated 20 billion tns of ultimate coal resource available for surface or shallow underground mining in the province. The coal resource to a depth of 2000m that is of interest for coalbed methane exploration is more than 250 billion tns.