Baikal Mining Co says borrows $1.4–1.45 bln to build Udokan plant

MOSCOW, Jan 29 (PRIME) -- Baikal Mining Company belonging to billionaire Alisher Usmanov will take a U.S. $1.40–1.45 billion loan from Russian banks to finish construction of a plant at the Udokan copper deposit, Chairman of the Board of Directors Valery Kazikayev said at a mining congress on Tuesday.

“We have invested about $900 million of own funds, and literally yesterday, three key banks -- Sberbank, Gazprombank and VEB.RF (Vnesheconombank) -- agreed to finance $1.40–1.45 billion in the first stage of construction,” Kazikayev said.

The Udokan deposit is one of the world’s largest copper deposits located near the Baikal. The deposit’s mineral resources are estimated at 2.3 billion tonnes with an average copper content of 1.06%, and copper of 24.6 million tonnes under JORC. The first stage is planned to be launched in 2022, and investments are estimated at $2.1 billion.

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