Russian company A-Property said on Tuesday it had formally requested permission from the country’s anti-monopoly regulator to buy a 100% stake in the Elga coal project owned by miner Mechel and lender Gazprombank.
The Elga mine, located in a remote region of Russia’s Far East, is Mechel’s biggest asset and holds one of the world’s largest coking coal deposits with reserves of 2.2-billion tonnes.
Mechel, which is in talks with its creditors about restructuring $6 billion in loans, sold a 49% stake in the project in 2016 to Gazprombank, one of its main creditors, as part of a debt restructuring process.