VEB could pump 6.4 bln rubles into Yakutia coal project
MOSCOW. Sept 15 (Interfax) - Vnesheconombank (VEB) could allocate 6.4 billion rubles for the construction of the Ignalinsky coal mining complex in southern Yakutia in 2009-2012, the bank's chairman, Vladimir Dmitriyev, said in an interview with the Kommersant newspaper.
VEB's supervisory board will consider this at its next meeting, Dmitriyev said.
The complex will be capable of mining 2.75 million tonnes of coal and producing 2.1 million tonnes of coking coal concentrate per year.
CJSC Yakutia Coals - New Technologies, which is a subsidiary of LLC Kolmar, is carrying the project out. The CJSC's general director, Sergei Nauman, told Interfax at the end of June that Kolmar had applied to VEB and Societe Generale for funding for the project. He said the coal complex would cost an estimated 8.7 billion rubles and that the company had asked the banks for 80% of this. The government of Yakutia has been invited to buy a blocking stake in the company in order to fund the remaining 20%.
Kolmar had offered South Korea's LG up to 40% of the project, but it has not yet received a reply.
According to the SPARK database, Kolmar is owned by the offshore-registered Bixcut Holdings and Magora Trading, and by the BVI-registered Saybrook Capital. It was founded in 2004 by Dmitry Matsul. Lev Kuznetsov, its general director, is one of the owners.
Kolmar's assets include OJSC Neryungriugol (Denisovskaya deep mine) and a 57%-stake in the Erel joint venture besides CJSC Yakutia Coals - New Technologies.