RCC may acquire 50% in Udokan copper deposit

MOSCOW, Apr 12 (PRIME) -- Russian Copper Company (RCC), the country's third largest copper producer, may acquire 50% in the Udokan copper deposit, Alisher Usmanov, the founder of USM Holdings, which owns Baikal Mining Company, the operator of the Udokan deposit, said on Wednesday.

“We are in active talks with banks and partners from Russian Copper Company on cooperation in development of the field. The negotiations are run by Baikal Mining Company, we are open to cooperation and start of construction of an ore dressing plant,” he said.

He added that RCC has a reliable experience in building of copper processing facilities and is able to make them more efficient than other market participants.

The Udokan deposit is one of the world’s largest copper deposits. An industrial facility to be built on the deposit, will have a capacity of 36 million tonnes of ore a year. The deposits 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.

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