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Resources Ministry Prepares New Procedure
The Ministry of Natural Resources is preparing a new procedure for the distribution of major mineral deposits. The selection criterion will be the presence of processing capacity. “We will propose that companies build processing facilities at the deposit, so as to export not just raw material, but the products of processing as well,” stated Resources Minister Yury Trutnev.
Trutnev said that deposits will no longer be assigned by auction. Instead, competitions will be held, in which the presence of an investment plan to create processing capacity will be a criterion. The depth of processing proposed will affect the results.
Analysts say the impact of the new procedure will depend on the definition of “major.” The word is now used for deposits with “federal significance,” which is only a limited number of the very largest, strategic deposits. If the word is used to describe a wider set of deposits, the new procedure could be used as an addition instrument to exclude foreign companies. Competitions are more easily manipulated than auctions. Russian state companies would thus benefit most from the changes.
Resources Ministry department head Sergey Fedorov told Kommersant that the ministry was looking at “deposits that can influence the socio-economic conditions of a region” and that development of draft amendments to land-use laws is underway.
www.kommersant.com
All the Article in Russian as of May 23, 2007
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