Interfax, citing court documents, reported that OAO Magnitogorsk Iron & Steel was sued by its partner in an iron ore venture after assuming ownership of a license to the venture’s largest ore deposit.

Atop International Group, which holds 49% of the OAO Bakalskoye Rudoupravleniye venture, filed a suit at Chelyabinsk in Russia, after the license to the Techenskoye ore field was transferred to Magnitogorsk.

Magnitogorsk got the license in May following regulatory approval.

Mr Kirill Golubkov, a spokesman for Magnitogorsk, said today by phone when Bloomberg News called, without elaborating that “We see no legitimate grounds for this suit.”

(Sourced from bloomberg.net)