Evraz to invest $35 mln in Kachkanar expansion, $37 mln in Tuva coal
MOSCOW. May 23 (Interfax) - Evraz plans to invest $37 million in 2012 in a project to develop coal assets in Tuva, the Russian steel company said.
The company holds the licenses to the Mezhegeiskoye deposit and the Vostochny section of the western part of the Ulug-Khem basin. The company expects to begin mining Mezhegeiskoye in 2013, and Vostochny in 2021.
Evraz also plans to invest $35 million this year to expand the mining capacity of its Kachkanarsky GOK iron ore division to 55 million tonnes per year, as well as $223 million in the construction of the Yerunakovskaya VIII mine ($33 million of total capex of $390 million had been invested by the start of this year).
Evraz said in a prospectus for a Eurobond offering in April that in February it approved a development plan for Mezhegeiskoye that calls for investing about $203 million in the project in 2012-2014 and bring coal production at the deposit up to 1.3 million tonnes by 2015. Mezhegeiskoye could be producing 7 million tonnes of coking coal per year by 2019, the company said.
Evraz won the tender for the license to Mezhegeiskoye in the spring of 2010, and later acquired the license to the neighboring Vostochny field. The Tuva deposits are expected to eventually replace the depleted reserves of Evraz coal division Yuzhkuzbassugol.