On June 30, the Mongolian government announced that it has reduced by half the number of bidders shortlisted to develop the Tavan Tolgoi coking coal mine. The six bidders shortlisted earlier are now down to three, including Chinese and Russian groups.
The government has not revealed the names of the bidders in the reduced shortlist. ArcelorMittal, Vale and Xstrata were among the bidders originally shortlisted.
The Tavan Tolgoi coal deposit, in Mongolia's south Gobi region, has estimated reserves of 6 billion mt of coal, including the world's largest untapped deposit of steelmaking coking coal.
Mongolia, which has a gross domestic product of around $6 billion, is hoping to use Tavan Tolgoi to finance its long list of infrastructure investments around the country.
The Mongolian government stated that the results of the bid will be announced within a few days and more than one winner may be picked to develop the project.