OREANDA-NEWS. On 10 June 2009 was announced, that a special task force formed by the Russian Ministry of Industry and Trade held its regular meeting to discuss Acron’s proposal to establish Mineral Resources Corporation Salt of the Earth (MRC Salt of the Earth) as a partnership between the government and private sector. The meeting was chaired by Andrey Dementiev, the Deputy Minister of Industry and Trade.

The meeting discussed the revised business plan of the MRC prepared by Acron’s specialists based on comments and proposals received from the governmental experts, who also attended the meeting and once again confirmed the importance of this initiative. Acron’s project will reduce monopoly domination in the raw materials markets and promote the revival of mineral fertiliser industry and Russian economy in general after the global financial crisis. The initiative has also a significant social aspect to it.

The attendees came up with certain comments on the specific options of the government’s participation in the project and mechanisms of the state support. Experts requested alternative calculations for the project business model to take into account significant domestic processing of raw materials to be produced by the project, exchange rate forecasts and various scenarios in the markets for MRC.

The task force will make certain revisions of the business plan, which will be further discussed by the task force formed by the Russian government, with major focus on the mechanisms of the state support.