JOHANNESBURG (miningweekly.com) – Mongolian metallurgical coal explorer and infrastructure company Aspire Mining has started the first stage of the rail feasibility study for the Erdenet to Ovoot railway, which is critical to the development of the Ovoot coking coal project.
The first stage of the rail feasibility study is expected to be completed in December and will provide a confirmed construction schedule and capital expenditure estimate, ASX-listed Aspire reported on Thursday.
Financial services group Quam Capital has secured interim short-term funding of $2-million from a group of investors to progress time critical rail predevelopment activities. This will enable Aspire’s rail subsidiary, Northern Railways, to complete the first stage rail feasibility study and environmental surveys.
The company added that it continued to work on completing funding arrangements for the final feasibility study work and for the engineering, procurement and construction of the railway.
The railway forms part of the new Northern Rail Corridor linking China, Mongolia and Russia. The Northern Rail Corridor agreement identifies a 3 500 km rail path connecting the seaport of Tianjin to the Trans-Siberian Railway, at Kuragino, in Russia. About 2 100 km of the rail corridor already exists.