Bloomberg reported that IRC Limited, a Hong Kong listed affiliate of gold miner Petropavlovsk Plc, seeks to add Russian iron ore customers to diversify from Chinese sales.

Mr Pavel Maslovskiy founder of IRC Limited said that "We are avoiding off take agreements with Chinese companies in order not to tie ourselves to a single customer. We want our product to be used in Russia and are in talks with steelmaker Amurmetall."

Amurmetall, the only steelmaker in Russia's Far East, produces steel from scrap and is upgrading its facilities with funds from VEB, the state development bank.

Mr Maslovskiy said that the upgrade will allow the steelmaker to use iron ore concentrate or direct reduced iron, buying 1 to 2 million tonnes of product a year from IRC.

IRC, which operates mines in Russia's eastern Amur region near the border with China, produced more than 800,000 tonnes of iron ore in 2011. The company targets fivefold production growth to about 4.5 million tonnes in 2014 after starting its flagship K&S mine at the end of 2013.

(Sourced from www.bloomberg.net)