By Alex MacDonald
LONDON--Steel titan ArcelorMittal (MT) has signed a five-year
agreement with Canada-based Evrim Resources Corp. (EVM.V) to
explore for iron ore, a key steelmaking ingredient, in Mexico.
Under the terms of the agreement, ArcelorMittal's Mexican unit
ArcelorMittal Servicios Minerometalurgicos de Occidente S.A. and
Evrim will jointly fund iron ore exploration programs in Mexico,
Evrim said Wednesday. Following the discovery of a deposit,
ArcelorMittal will be solely responsible for funding the project's
development. ArcelorMittal will own 100% of all projects taken to
the development stage, subject to a sliding scale royalty on iron
ore production and a separate royalty on all other commodities
payable to Evrim.
The parties have agreed to a firm commitment for the first two
years of the agreement.
"We look forward to working with ArcelorMittal to find and
develop new iron ore deposits for processing at their facilities in
Mexico," said Paddy Nicol, chief executive of Evrim in a statement
Wednesday.
ArcelorMittal has been expanding its iron ore production with a
view to producing 84 million metric tons of iron ore annually in
2015, up from 15.4 million tons last year. ArcelorMittal has iron
ore mines in Canada, Liberia, Ukraine and Kazakhstan.
Write to Alex MacDonald at alex.macdonald@wsj.com
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