OREANDA-NEWS. April 25, 2012. Mechel (NYSE: MTL), one of the leading Russian mining and metals companies, reports acquiring 15 BelAZ mining dump trucks as part of a long-term partnership agreement signed by Mechel and BelAZ on November 28, 2011, during the session of the Supreme State Council of the Union State of Russia and Belarus in the presence of heads of state, reported the press-centre of Mechel.

The mining dump trucks are acquired on behalf of Yakutugol Holding Company and Korshunov Mining Plant on lease contracts signed with Sberbank Leasing. The sum of those contracts totaled 870 million rubles (29.5 million US dollars). The trucks will be delivered to the plants before the end of 2012’s second quarter.

Yakutugol Holding Company will receive eleven trucks of 220-tonne, 130-tonne and 55-tonne capacity for transporting overburden and coal, which will be used at Nerungrinsk Open Pit and Elga Coal Complex.

Korshunov Mining Plant will operate four 130-tonne trucks, which will be used to transport soil and iron ore at the Korshunovsk mine.

Due to structural improvements, the new trucks have higher cargo turnover and efficiency than their predecessors.

“BelAZ trucks are widely used at our mining plants and have proven themselves well. As such, the 10-year agreement with Belarus Autoworks (BelAZ), which guarantees us supplies of these trucks in the amount we need, is highly important for us, especially considering the growing production volumes at the Elga deposit. Systematic efforts for technical re-equipment enable the company to increase production, cut operational costs, create a significant safety margin for its production assets, which guarantees uninterrupted and well-coordinated work of all our mining enterprises,” Mechel Mining OAO’s Chief Executive Officer Igor Zyuzin noted.