Russian billionaire to build $1.4 Billion railroad to coal field

Billionaire Ziyavudin Magomedov’s Summa Group won the right to build a 44.3 billion ruble ($1.4 billion) section of a railroad to coal fields in East Siberia, near deposits to be developed by Evraz Plc and OAO Severstal.

OOO Stroynovatsiya, part of the Summa Group, was awarded a contract by the Russian Railway Transportation Agency to build 147 kilometers (91 miles) of the Kuragino-Kyzyl line to Tyva region, according to the State Purchases disclosure website.

Another 255 kilometers will be funded by Yenisey Industrial Co., co-owned by copper billionaire Igor Altushkin and Ruslan Baisarov. Yenisey, which has the right to develop the Elegest coal deposit in Tyva that holds about 855 million metric tons of reserves, may spend as much 86 billion rubles on the line and hasn’t yet picked a contractor, its press service said today.

Evraz and Severstal, Russia’s largest steelmakers, plan to develop neighboring deposits in the Tyva region.