Mar 13, 2012 -- OAO Mechel (MTL), Russia’s largest producer of coal for steelmakers, said in a statement it got a license to extract iron ore in “several promising deposits” in two areas of the eastern Siberian Republic of Sakha.

The company received licenses for researching, investigating and extracting iron ore in the Sutamsky area and in the Sivaglinsky deposit, both located in Sakha, according to the statement. Mechel (MTLR) estimates iron ore reserves in the 740 square kilometer Sutamsky license area at 1.35 billion tones. The areas are near Mechel’s Elga coal field, its largest project.