Mongolia to pick coal mine stake winners by end 09
* Govt to choose winners of mine sale by end 09- minister
* Says Mongolia has received many proposals for project
By Joseph Chaney and Rujun Shen
TIANJIN, China, Oct 21 - Mongolia's government, offering a stake in a coal mine said to be worth around $2 billion, will select the winners of the highly contested stake sale by the end of this year, a government official said on Wednesday.
The stake in the Tavan Tolgoi mine, which holds estimated reserves of 6.5 billion tonnes of coking coal, is widely regarded as the world's largest untapped coking coal deposit.
"We'll try our best to conclude the selection by the end of this year," Dr. Ariunsan Baldanjav, Mongolia's vice-minister of Mineral Resouces and Energy, told reporters on the sidelines of the China Mining Conference in Tianjin.
Baldanjav, who was speaking through a translator, said many countries with advanced technical capabilities had submitted proposals for the project.
"We are trying to make the decision as soon as possible," he said.
Mongolia has hired JP Morgan <JPM.N> and Deutsche Bank <DBKGn.DE> to sell up to a 49 percent stake in the mine, which has drawn interest from China Shenhua <1088.HK>, Peabody <BTU.N>, Severstal <CHMF.MM> and world No.1 miner BHP Billiton <BLT.L>, among others.
Mongolia's government, aiming use the country's mineral wealth to pull its 3 million people out of poverty, has been undecided about whether to divide the deposit between bidders to satisfy multiple political allegiances, sources told Reuters previously. [ID:nHKG58854].
China Shenhua -- which told Reuters in early September that it was still pursuing Tavan Tolgoi -- is a preferred bidder, resources investment bankers have said.
Successfully developing national resources assets such as Tavan Tolgoi is a political imperative for Mongolia's new president, Tsakhiagiin Elbegdorj, who took power in May promising more benefits from the country's mineral wealth.
The global financial crisis crushed the value of the country's mineral exports as commodity prices plummeted, causing government revenues to plunge.