Russian, Korean, Japanese cos team up for Mongolian coal license bid
MOSCOW. Feb 1 (Interfax) - Russian Railways (RZD) and partners have formed a consortium to bid for the rights to the giant Tavan Tolgoi coal field in Mongolia.
An RZD source told Interfax that the consortium included Russia's Siberian Coal and Energy Company (SUEK), a number of Korean firms led by Korean Resources Corporation, and Japanese companies including Itochu and Sumitomo.
The consortium has applied to bid at a tender being conducted by the Mongolian government. The consortium would use a new railway to ship the coal to Russia's Far Eastern ports and onwards to the Asia-Pacific region.
RZD will be one of the project's key investors, the source said.
SUEK told Interfax that it would be part of the consortium, but it declined to disclose any details ahead of the tender.
En+ has also "made a new offer to the Mongolian government to participate in the Tavan Tolgoi project," En+ told Interfax. "[The bid is] just En+, without consortia," the company said.
Tavan Tolgoi is in southern Mongolia, 250 km from the Chinese border and 540 km from Ulan Bator. It is estimated to contain 6.5 billion tonnes of high-calorific coal - 40% of it coking coal. The field went partially on stream back in 1967. A 400-km railway and power plants will have to be built for it to be developed full-scale.
