Indian firm Tata Steel is ready to work with any firm poised to acquire coal miner Riversdale Mining Ltd, where the giant South Asian steel company holds a 24 percent interest.

This in reaction to Rio Tinto Ltd's close to $4 billion takeover proposal for the Africa-focused collier, which currently maintains some combined 13 billion tonnes of coking and thermal coal deposits on its Benga and Zambeze operations in the African continent.

According to Tata Steel managing director HM Nerurkar, good management is the prime concern of the Indian firm's investments in the Perth-based company and as such would be willing to cooperate with any company that would eventually run Riversdale Mining.

Nerurkar also noted that Tata Steel's interest on Riversdale was not only motivated by financial considerations but also to ensure that its Indian and European operations would be consistently fed with coking coal supplies.

Tata Steel issued the statement in light of possible rival bids for Riversdale Mining following the surfacing of Indian conglomerate International Coal Ventures Ltd (ICVL) as viable suitor for the Mozambique-focused coal miner.

Talks of Tata Steel joining forces with ICVL swirled for a while yet this has been dismissed by the joint venture of Indian government-owned companies, with Indian Steel Minister Virbhadra Singh declaring that "ICVL is a company formed by various public-sector companies so it cannot take in a non-public sector company as a partner."

Also, the likelihood of Tata Steel tossing its own takeover proposal for Riversdale is a consideration within the list of moves closely mulled by the Indian giant but Nerurkar hastened to add that "one needs deep pockets for making a counter-bid and we are at present watching the situation closely."

Riversdale's board of directors already recommended Rio Tinto's $16 per share takeover proposal to its shareholders last week as the global mining giant revealed in a corresponding statement that its offer price was reflective of a 24 percent premium on Riversdale's volume-weighted average price in November.