NOVOKUZNETSK, June 7 (RIA Novosti) - Evraz Group has become 100% owner of Siberia-based coal producer Yuzhkuzbassugol and is ready to rectify mine safety violations, the head of Russia's industrial safety regulator said Thursday.
Yuzhkuzbassugol, the country's largest underground coal mining company, owns two mines that were hit by explosions this spring, which took the lives of 149 people. Evraz currently controls 12 mines in the Kemerovo Region.
Konstantin Pulikovsky said Alexander Frolov, the director of Evraz, a leading Russian steel and mining group, had told him Yuzhkuzbassugol had completed the transfer of ownership.
Yuzhkuzbassugol has not yet commented on the deal.
Pulikovsky said the mining company's license was unlikely to be revoked. "I believe we should take the issue to the court, which could offer a plan to rectify violations," Pulikovsky said.
Pulikovsky said conclusions to be made by a commission investigating the causes for the blast would be approved and submitted to the government and the Prosecutor General's Office even without the signature of the regional governor, Aman Tuleyev.
He also said he would accept the resignation of the regional head of the regulator, Rostekhnadzor, who earlier said he would quit over his disagreements with agency policy.
