OREANDA-NEWS. March 11, 2010. Mechel OAO (NYSE: MTL), one of the leading Russian mining and metals companies, announced visit of the President of Sakha (Yakutia) Republic Vyacheslav Styrov and Amurskaya Oblast Governor Oleg Kozhemyako to Elga coal deposit And Ulak-Elga railroad construction site, reported the press-centre of Mechel.

On March, 5, 2010 a working visit was made to Elga coal deposit and Ulak-Elga railroad construction site by Vyacheslav Styrov, the President of Sakha (Yakutia) Republic, Oleg Kozhemyako, Amurskaya Oblast Governor, Gennady Alexeev, the First Deputy Chairman of the Sakha (Yakutia) Republic Government and Vladimir Kozhevnikov, Head of Neryungrinsky Region. From the side of Mechel the trip was participated by Igor Zyuzin, Mechel’s Chief Executive Officer, Mukhamed Tsikanov, Senior Vice President on Economics and Management, Petr Syrkin, Vice-President for Capital Construction, and Igor Khafizov, Yakutugol OAO’s Managing Director. The delegation visited various objects of the railroad’s construction and the deposit itself.

This was the first joint visit of the President of Sakha (Yakutia) Republic, Amurskaya Oblast Governor and Mechel’s management to Elga coal deposit directly.

Inspection of the Elga coal deposit mining complex started from the visit to the construction’s headquaters which is located on the base of “4th km of the Ulak-Elga railway spur track”. The base belongs to Mechel OAO’s subsidiary Metallurgshachtspectzstroy ZAO which is the project’s general contractor. At this base units of heavy machinery are formed into convoys and then are sent to the site of the open pit mine construction.

At the “4th km of the Ulak-Elga railway spur track” base a meeting was held. During the meeting Petr Syrkin told about progress in works on the Ulak-Elga railroad construction and plans to develop Elga coal deposit. Vyacheslav Styrov, the President of Sakha (Yakutia) Republic pointed to the importance of the project, especially for Sakha (Yakutia) Republic itself. He noted hard geological environment of the railroad, which goes through mountain chains and crossings and canyons. Vyacheslav Styrov proposed cooperation in construction of some of strategically important objects of infrastructure in line with regional development projects. Oleg Kozhemyako, Amurskaya Oblast Governor, in his turn proposed to use human resources from settlements nearby. In this regard it is important to make a joint program for staff training in order to meet the project’s demand, he said.

The ending point of the visit was the 315th km of the railroad, where Vyacheslav Styrov, Oleg Kozhemyako and Igor Zyuzin installed a memorial sign, thus fixing the beginning of Elga coal deposit development. The President of Sakha (Yakutia) Republic noted the great historical importance of the moment when development of the largest coal deposit on the Far East started. Its development would significantly contribute to social sphere and economy of the region and industry in whole, he said.