The final decision as to whether to annul the license allowing Eureka Mining to develop Mikheevskoye field will be made by the Russian Federation Ministry of Natural Resources, which has recently received a complaint from the regional public prosecution bodies that claim the English company do not obey the licensing agreements, First Deputy Governor of Chelyabinsk Region Vladimir Dyatlov announced at a conference.

‘If Eureka Mining tried harder, it would have pretty good chances of keeping the license; yet there are a lot of people willing to develop the deposit more effectively, so the Ministry might annul their license and hold a new auction,’ Mr Dyatlov said.

The federal monitoring authorities revealed the company’s numerous violations of the agreement in 2005-2006, for example, failing to meet the deadlines for the prospecting work at the deposit. Eureka Mining received licenses allowing it to work with three porphyry-copper deposits located in Chelyabinsk Region (Mikheevskoye, Tominskoye, and Tarutinskoye), yet it later lost its licenses for Tominskoye, and Tarutinskoye ones.