MOSCOW, December 5 (RIA Novosti) - Russia's Federal Service for the Oversight of Natural Resources said Monday that by 2012 it would hold more than 200 auctions for contracts to develop mineral resource deposits in eastern Siberia.
Agency deputy head Pyotr Sadovnik, speaking at a parliamentary hearing on oil and natural gas resources in eastern Siberia, said 16 auctions had been announced this year, of which nine had so far been held.
He said contracts for licenses to develop four deposits in the southern central Siberian region of Irkutsk would take place later this month.
