OREANDA-NEWS. March 02, 2010. Evraz Group S.A. (LSE: EVR) (“Evraz” or the “Company”) today announced that it has won the tender to develop the Mezhegey coal deposit in the Republic of Tyva, Russia. Evraz offered RUB950 million (approximately USD 32 million) in the tender held by the Russian State Mineral Resources Agency. The relevant licence is expected to be received within two months.

The Mezhegey coal deposit is located 800 km east of the city of Novokuznetsk, in the central part of the Republic of Tyva, East Siberia. It is a world class coking coal deposit with estimated category A+B+C1 reserves of 213.5 million tonnes of hard coking coal (grade Zh under Russian classification). Detailed plans for the development of the Mezhegey deposit will be prepared in due course.

Alexander Frolov, Evraz’s CEO, said:

“The development of the Mezhegey coal deposit is a strategic investment aimed at covering the needs of Evraz’s steelmaking facilities for high quality hard coking coal after the depletion of existing Zh-grade coal reserves. Evraz will also benefit from production and sales of additional volumes to the market. Due to the long-term nature of the project, it will not require substantial capital expenditures over the next two years which is in line with our conservative cash management policy”.