Amur Mining wins auction for Siberian iron ore

The Russian Amur Mining (Amur), a takeover target of London-listed Aricom Plc, has won the rights to explore and mine the Garinskoye iron ore deposit in Western Siberia. In the auction held yesterday, Amur bid Ruble 500 million ($19 million) for the license. The Garinskoye deposit holds approximately 388.8 million metric tons of Russian Category A, B and C ore with an average grade of 41.7 percent. It is expected to be developed into a large scale mine and to start operations with an annual production capacity of up to 12 million metric tons of premium iron ore concentrate by 2010-2011. Aricom said that it hopes to acquire a controlling stake in Amur on a cost reimbursement basis, subject to regulatory approval.