Mechel accuses Weir International of overstating of coal reserves assessment

On December 30th of 2013, Mechel’s subsidiaries Mechel Mining and Mechel Bluestone filed an action in the court of West Virginia against the company Weir International Inc. The latter carried out additional exploration of resources at deposits of Bluestone, bought by Mechel from Justice in 2009.

Mechel thinks that requirements of the JORC code, which is the recognized international resource counting system, weren’t complied during the appraisal. According to Mechel’s specialists, Weir carried out an insufficiently detailed assessment, was guided by outdated data and took into account off-balance reserves. Particularly, more than a half of resources, calculated by Weir, were sold to the company National Resource Partners and wasn’t included into the deal between Mechel and Justice.