Russian billionaire, Oleg Deripaska’s, mining unit Basic Element rescinded their bid from an auction for the Siberian located copper deposit Udokan.  Strikeforce Mining and Resources Ltd. (SMR)  did not see the economic sense of bidding independently.

Russia’s Natural Resources Ministry is scheduled to award the Udokan field, which contains over 13 million tonnes of copper, in a Sept. 17 auction. It has set the starting price at 4.5 billion roubles ($178.1 million) and said about $1.6 billion would be required to bring the deposit into production.

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SMR said in June it planned to bid through the Sorsk Mining and Processing Complex, one of its two ferro-molybdenum plants that together account for 4 percent of world demand for the steel-hardening alloy. In Tuesday’s statement, the company said it had notified the Rosnedra subsoil agency, a unit of the Natural Resources Ministry, of its withdrawal from the upcoming tender.

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Metalloinvest plans to team with Russian Technologies who may invite Norilsk Nickel to join for the bid and Russkaya Med consortium – Russian Railways and Urals Mining and Metals Co. – also plan to bid on Udokan.  Udokan is one of the world’s biggest untapped copper fields. 

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