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Gold/Mining/Energy : WWS.T World Wide Minerals -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: traacs who wrote (705)	6/17/1999 9:15:00 PM
From: traacs	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 784

Mongolia to get uranium mine back from Russia 05:31 a.m. Jun 17, 1999 Eastern ULAN BATOR, June 17 (Reuters) - Mongolia will get its biggest uranium mine back from Russian ownership by September, officials said on Thursday. The mine at the remote eastern town of Mardai, which has deposits of about 40,000 tonnes of uranium, would be given to the Mongolian government without compensation, the Mineral Resources Authority said. ''The most valuable thing is that we receive the geological records from the Russian side, which means we can start production any time the prices go up,'' said T. Enkhbold, director of the mining office at the Ministry of Agriculture and Industry. He said the two countries agreed last week to invalidate a 1981 agreement that gave Moscow control of the mine and that theRussians would pull out before September 11. By then, Mongolia will have made separate contracts with Russian energy suppliers for electricity and the town's infrastructurefacilities would be transferred, he said. Russians built, equipped and maintained the mine, infrastructure and town of Mardai in an area connected to Russian energy and railway links. The 1981 intergovernmental agreement gave the mine to Soviet Union, with the Mongolian government receiving a fiverouble (about $3.00 at the time) royalty on each kg of uranium produced. After the Soviet Union collapsed, the rouble fell and Mongolia switched to a market economy, the deal became unprofitable for both sides, officials say. Mongolia's state-owned company Mongol Erdene later made a tripartite agreement with the Russian Priargunskij Mining Chemical and Toronto-based World Wide Minerals Ltd (WWS.TO) for a joint Central Asian Uranium Company to exploit the mine. The legality of the tripartite agreement had been questioned as the intergovernmental agreement had not been terminated. Mongolian officials said that by invalidating the intergovernmental agreement, the Russian-owned 21 percent of shares of the joint venture would be transferred to Mongolia, increasing its shares to 42 percent. World Wide Minerals party owns 58 percent. However, the future of the mine remained unclear and the government was discussing it with the Canadian firm, Mongolian officials said. They said there were no valid commercial contracts and the mine had not been operating since 1998. World Wide Minerals, which has closed its Mongolia office, was not immediately available for comment. ((Ulan Bator Newsroom (976) 1-328 954; Fax (976) 1-312 565))