OREANDA-NEWS. March 29, 2011. Belarus has opened an international tender to select an investor in the construction of a mining and processing complex to produce iron-rich pellets at Okolovskoe deposit with investment requirement at USD 1.35 billion, an official in the Nature Ministry stated.

It is planned to build a complex including four production units – a mine, ore-dressing plant, pelletization unit and metallization plant. Each will require transport and energy infrastructure, maintenance services, etc.

Recoverable reserves are estimated at 145.4 million tonnes with average magnetite iron content of 15.44% and total iron content of 25.52%.

Bids are accepted by October 9, 2011, the winner will be announced on October 4. The agreement will be signed by the end of the year. The project will take up to five years.

Belarus previously opened a tender to select an investor for development, production and processing of granite at Sitnitskoe building stone deposit. Investment requirement is estimated at USD 381.3 million.

It was reported previously that Belarus plans to open five international competitive tenders to select developers of natural deposits this March.

Belarus plans to select a company to develop, extract and process brown coal at Brinevskoe, Zhitkovichskoe and Tonezhkoe deposits, with reserves of up to 41.79 million tonnes, 47.97 million tonnes and 40.04 million tonnes, respectively. Investment requirement is projected at USD 267.16 million, USD 391.3 million and USD 262.3 million, respectively.

The second project envisages the construction of a coal-making enterprise with a capacity of 1.8 million tonnes a year and a 460-megawatt single-unit coal-fired power plant based on Lelchitsy coal deposit. Required foreign investments are estimated at USD 578.7 million. The cost of the construction is 1.159 trillion Belarusian rubles calculated at 2006 rates, when the dollar bought 2,145 Belarusian rubles.

It is also planned to implement a project to develop, extract and process oil shale at Lyubanskoe and Turovskoe deposits, with reserves standing at 1.123 billion tonnes and 2.684 billion tonnes. Foreign investment requirement is projected at USD 1.594 billion.

Belarus also plans to hold an international competitive tender to establish an ore-dressing and processing enterprise to produce iron-rich pellets on Okolovskoe deposit.