MOSCOW. July 11 (Interfax) –

The list of the companies targeting the world’s largest copper field was enriched by the second public-private partnership.

Mikhailovsky GOK (MGOK), a major iron ore producer from Russia's Kursk region and a member of the Metalloinvest holding, has applied to bid at a tender for the rights to Udokan, a source at a profile agency told Interfax. Metalloinvest's press office confirmed a bid application had been filed in MGOK's name.

A highly placed source at Rostekhnologii told Interfax that the corporation had reached agreement with Metalloinvest to form a joint venture to develop Udokan if the bid is successful. "We've reached agreement with Metalloinvest to form a joint venture to develop the Udokan field if it wins the tender," the Rostekhnologii source said.

The source added that Rostekhnologii viewed its possible involvement in Udokan and the development of its mining and metallurgical sector in general in the context of synergy with the Russian-Mongolian Erdenet copper mining joint venture, which could become part of the State corporation.

With the deadline just hours away, five companies have now filed bid applications: MGOK; Strikeforce Mining and Resources Ltd. (SMR), which is a subsidiary of the Basic Element holding's mineral resources division SoyuzMetalResource; Mikhail Prokhorov's Onexim Group; MMC Norilsk Nickel (RTS: GMKN); and the CJSC Russian Copper consortium, which includes Russian Railways (RZD) (RTS: RZHD), Urals Mining and Metallurgical Company (UMMC) and Russian Bank for Development and Foreign Economic Affairs (Vnesheconombank, VEB).

Vladimir Potanin's Interros holding has also expressed an interest in Udokan. Interros and Alisher Usmanov's Gallagher Holdings said in May that participation in the Udokan project might be an aspect of their cooperation in the framework of understandings regarding partnership in the creation of an international mining and metallurgical company holding.

The Udokan tender takes place on September 17. The deadline for bid applications is 4:00 p.m. Moscow time on July 11.

The initial payment amounts to 4.5 bln rubles. The winner will obtain a license of 20 years duration.

As announced by the Ministry of Natural Resources of the Russian Federation, and according to experts’ estimations, Udokan could produce up to 187,000 tonnes of copper, or 15% of Russia's annual production of the metal. Up to 180,000 tonnes of copper would be processed each year under the project.

Rosnedra has said that as of January 1, 2008, Udokan contained B+C1 reserves of 14.43 million tonnes copper and C2 reserves of 5.52 million tonnes. The ores have a Cu content of 1.56%.

Udokan is one of the world's biggest copper deposits. It was discovered in 1949 and its reserves have been listed three times.

Norilsk Nickel's Giprotsvetmet institute possesses the most complete data about Udokan's reserves. The institute has been reappraising the field's reserves since the first quarter of 2007 and expects to complete its work at the end of 2009.