Mechel OAO, one of the leading Russian mining and metals companies, has signed a Memorandum of Intent with Minmetals, one of China's largest state industrial corporations.
Founded in 1950, China's Minmetals Corporation is a state-owned metallurgical and mining company ranked 11th among the 500 largest businesses of the Chinese People's Republic.
A number of commercial bilateral agreements were signed in October at the Third Russian-Chinese Economic Forum in Moscow, including the Memorandum of Intent between Mechel OAO and Minmetals.
The purpose of the Memorandum of Intent is to establish a long-term 'mutually advantageous partnership' to realise Mechel's key projects for the reconstruction of operating infrastructure and the construction of new infrastructure of federal importance.
This includes construction of the rail and structural steel mill at Chelyabinsk Metallurgical Plant OAO and the construction of a new coal mining complex at Elga deposit -- the largest undeveloped coal deposit - both being in-line with the federal concept of Russia's Far East region development.
