MOSCOW, February 27 (RIA Novosti) - The Russian mineral resources agency plans to hold 1,500 auctions for subsoil licenses in 2006, a senior official said Monday.
Anatoly Ledovskikh, the head of the Russian Federal Agency for the Management of Mineral Resources, said his agency would hold 1,500 auctions for subsoil licenses, including for oil and gas deposits and 1,100 designated for solid minerals deposits.
Vladimir Bavlov, deputy head of the agency, said about 500 auctions would be held for licenses on gold deposits.
He said last year the agency held 507 auctions on gold deposits, with 118 of them on ore deposits and the rest on alluvial gold deposits.
"In 2006, we plan to hold approximately the same number of auctions with similar proportions of ore and alluvial gold deposits," Bavlov said.