Kryvy Rih City Council has permitted Canada's Black Iron with assets in Ukraine to design a land allotment plan for the implementation of an iron ore production project at the Shymanivske iron ore field (Kryvy Rih, Dnipropetrovsk region).

According to the press release of Black Iron, Shymanivske Steel LLC, Black Iron's wholly owned Ukrainian subsidiary, runs the project.

The land allotment plan is a detailed report to be prepared by Shymanivske Steel to show the city of Kryvy Rih how Shymanivske Steel proposes to use the leased land by describing the proposed major infrastructure and utility tie-ins required for the Shymanivkse project.

Black Iron's Vice President Government & Community Relations Mykola Bayrak said that obtaining City Council approval to initiate the land allotment process was the result of an extensive process of documentation and public hearings culminating in a vote by Kryvy Rih City Council.

"I am very pleased by the strong support from City Council as 50 councilors voted in favor of awarding Shymanivske Steel the permission to initiate the land allotment process and only four councilors abstained from voting with none objecting," he said.

As reported, the Canadian company is implementing its project to build a new mining company in Ukraine. The cost of the project is over $1 billion. Over $60 million has been invested.

In October 2010 Black Iron acquired Geo-Alliance Ore East Limited, a Cyprus-based subsidiary of Geo Alliance Group Limited of EastOne Investment Group belonging to Ukrainian businessman Victor Pinchuk, together with licenses worth $13 million, and renamed it Black Iron (Cyprus) Ltd.

The Cypriot company owns over 99% of the shares in Shymanivske Steel LLC and Zelenivske Steel (both based in Dnipro), which own licenses to exploit iron ore mines for the period until November 1, 2024 and November 1, 2014 respectively.

In July 2013, Metinvest, Ukraine's largest mining and steel group, has reached an agreement with Black Iron Inc on investment in Black Iron (Cyprus) Ltd (BKI Cyprus), a subsidiary of the Canadian mining company that owns the iron ore assets in Ukraine. The agreements require Metinvest to make an initial investment of $20 million in BKI Cyprus to help finance the projects. Later Metinvest left the project.

In Q3 2014 the company received a permit to develop the field and was passing the land allotment procedure. In addition, Black Iron Inc. asked the Ecology and Natural Resources Ministry to extend the permit to explore the Zelenivske field to study its potential.