OREANDA-NEWS. June 27, 2012. Belarus plans to announce international tenders soon to choose concession developers for a few mineral mining projects, Vladimir Varaksa of Belarus’ Ministry for Natural Resource and Environment Protection said in a statement.

They plan to announce tenders by late June or mid July, state-owned news agency quotes Varaksa as saying.

The concession register now includes 11 mining fields, including Kuropolie and Golbitsa clay deposits (Postavy, Vitebsk Region), Dobrush chalk deposits (Gomel Region), Perenosinskoye gravel deposit (Baranovichi, Brest Region), Ulesie sand and gravel field (Dokshitsy, Vitebsk Region), Turovskoye slate coal deposit (Stolin, Brest Region).

As previously reported, investment projects to develop the aforementioned mining fields are subject to approval by the head of state. President Lukashenko has challenged the Cabinet of Ministers to make mining proposals to foreign investors.

According to Varaksa, the government has not yet decided on the market value of the mining fields to be put up for auction.