OAO Magnitogorsk Iron & Steel Works (MMK) and OOO Hatch Engineering & Consulting (Canada-based Hatch’s Russian branch) signed an exploratory design agreement that is intended to provide MMK with the best scheme for the development of Prioskolskoye iron ore deposit.

Under this agreement, OOO Hatch Engineering & Consulting must design and transfer to MMK, the customer, the final report on their research findings. Hatch Engineering & Consulting is to do some comparative analysis in order to decide on the most efficient way to develop the deposit; their proposed method should ensure reduced land allotment expenses, eliminated environmental risks, and minimized capital and maintenance spending. Besides, Hatch Engineering & Consulting will come up with a plan for the project documentation development, complete with a construction permit. Everything is to be completed within six months of the day the agreement was signed, MMK reports.

Now MMK made the winning bid at the auction on Prioskolskoye iron ore deposit (Starooskolskiy district, Belgorod Region) in November 2006. The deposit is estimated to hold over 2 billion tons of ore, while the projected capacity of Prioskolskiy Ore Mining & Processing Enterprise comes to 25 million tons of iron ore a year. The completion of this enterprise in Belgorod Region will mean MMK will provide itself with a sixty years’ supply of iron ore.