Jindal to clear up documentation for El Mutún within 2 wks - Bolivia

Jindal to clear up documentation for El Mutún within 2 wks - Bolivia

BNAmericas

2nd May 2007

India's Jindal Steel & Power will respond within two weeks to all 13 of the observations noted on the documentation the company submitted to the Bolivian government to develop the El Mutún iron ore deposit.

"The company wanted to send a fax confirming that everything was in legal order and ready to be signed, but that isn't true," Bolivia's deputy mining minister, Pedro Mariobo Moreno, told BNamericas.

Jindal still has not formed a subsidiary to partner with state company Empresa Siderúrgica de El Mutún (ESEM) to develop the deposit, "and what it wants to do is have a branch in Bolivia without limits on the duties it can perform, and that must be corrected," according to the official.

In April, the inter-ministerial committee in charge of overseeing contract signing between Jindal and the Bolivian government asked company representatives for clarification on the paperwork submitted.

Although the company said it would deliver the documents in two weeks, the inter-ministerial committee set a deadline of 60 days in which to have everything set for contract signing.

"I think if the company doesn't want to lose the tender, it will have to fulfill these requirements," Mariobo said, adding, "if it doesn't meet the deadline, the government is going to choose another option."

Jindal won the bidding process in June last year to control 50% of El Mutún in Santa Cruz department, one of the world's largest iron ore and manganese deposits holding some 40Bt of reserves with an average 50% iron grade.

By Harvey Beltrán
Business News Americas