HONG KONG, Dec 13 2010 – IRC Limited (Stock Code: 1029) has entered into a HK$2.7 billion project finance facility agreement with the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China Limited (ICBC).

 

The funds will be used to develop stage one of the Company’s iron ore mining operations at its K & S mine, located about 100 km from China’s Heilongjiang Province.

 

The facility is repayable over a period of 11 years.

 

Petropavlovsk PLC., the controlling shareholder of the company, has agreed to guarantee the Group’s obligations under the ICBC Facility Agreement.

 

In parallel with this facility, IRC Limited has signed an engineering and procurement contract to construct a processing plant, with a capability to produce up to 3.22 Mtpa of 65% iron ore concentrate at the K & S mine, with China National Electric Equipment Company (CNEEC).

 

CNEEC is one of China’s leading engineering and energy contractors.

 

Work will start in 2011 and be completed in 2013.

 

The mine is expected to produce nearly 4 million tonnes of ore per annum in 2016.

 

IRC Limited is a company incorporated in Hong Kong, listed on the main board of the Stock Exchange of Hong Kong, with the ticker 1029. It produces industrial commodities products in the far east of Russia and north east of China. It is currently operating an iron ore mine, with a second coming on stream in 2013 and third in 2015. These mine sites are located in the Amur and the EAO Regions, at the Chinese border and in Heilongjiang, China. The company benefits from the Group’s 16 years of successful involvement in mining in the Russian far east. All are linked to the Trans Siberian and BAM railway networks. IRC’s strategy is to capitalise on the geology and geography of the area and its good infrastructure to deliver quickly and cheaply, ore to customers throughout the region. IRC also has a 46% stake in a vanadium processing plant with a Chinese partner, Jianlong and a 70% stake in Giproruda, one of Asia’s leading mining research institutions.

www.ferro-alloys.com has been invited to attend the signing ceremony of IRC Limited’s project finance facility agreement with the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China Limited on Dec 13^th, 2010. Please follow our further reports.