BRAMA, March 13, 2002, 12 pm ET

The Ivaniv Garnet Project
Ivaniv, western Ukraine, approx 220 kms southwest of Kyiv
e-mail: aurora@telus.net
www.blackseaminerals.com

Heavy equipment used at Ivaniv Special Quarry where rock bound for Moscow road construction project is crushed.

A privatized Ukrainian company has been selected to supply the crushed rock the City of Moscow needs to repave long stretches of its Outer Ring Road.

Surface damage to the Outer Ring Road, brought on in recent years by growing volumes of traffic, is extensive, and the industrialized minerals firms selected to supply paving material for its repair is Ivaniv Special Quarry (ISQ) whose huge deposit of granite rock lies 225 kilometers southwest of Kyiv.

ISQ has operated the quarry at Ivaniv for nine years, and its recently-signed contract with the City of Moscow calls for a total load of 216,000 tonnes of crushed rock to be made available in the Russian capital over the next six months.

The rock crushed in Ivaniv will be shipped to Moscow, 700 kilometers northeast of Ivaniv, by rail.

These shipments will be completed overnight.

The Outer Ring Road is possibly the most famous road in Russia.

The largest of three Moscow ring roads, it runs for more than 100 kilometers, and since 1960, it has served as the official boundary of the City of Moscow whose urban population has grown to ten million people.

Thirteen trunk roads from all over the vast area of Russia feed into the Outer Ring Road, and the heavy wear and tear on its road surface has been allowed to go largely unchecked until of late.

Walter Stunder, the North American businessman whose company is partnered the rock-crushing company in Ukraine.

A ruling by the World Bank circa 1997 set aside $600 million for road construction--and reconstruction--in Russia with an apt portion of those funds dedicated to roads in Moscow.

Meanwhile, the City of Moscow had become more determined at collecting taxes in recent years, thereby enabling its highways department to be more diligent tending for the proper maintenance of roads.

Granite has been shipped from Ivaniv to Moscow before.

Any history of the famous system of Underground Railways in Moscow is not complete without mention of the great loads of Ukrainian rock used to build its stations, for example.

In the most recent decade, however, Russian demand for crushed rock from the 33-year-old quarry at Ivaniv has not been as great due to economic problems in Russia.

So, the 150 qualified and experienced mining personnel employed by Ivaniv Special Quarry are indeed welcoming the new Russian order for their product.

So are the Shareholders of Black Sea Minerals Inc. welcoming the result of contract negotiations with the City of Moscow.

Black Sea Minerals is the North American Joint-Venture Partner of Ivaniv Special Quarry.

Walter Stunder, president of Black Sea Minerals, said, "Business can be done in Russia."

Fluent in Ukrainian and Russian, Mr. Stunder--based in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada--is well-traveled as a businessman in both countries.

For more information, phone 1-877-454-7872, fax (604) 685 1596, e-mail: aurora@telus.net.

For more information also, visit the web-site at www.blackseaminerals.com

More BRAMA Press Releases -- Click Here
Comments and observations about this article and other news
may be posted to the BRAMA News & Politics Comment Board

DISCLAIMER:The contents of press releases on this website represent solely the positions of their respective authors and organizations. BRAMA neither endorses nor disapproves of the views expressed therein. BRAMA retains all final rights as to what may or may not appear on these pages. Anyone wishing to comment on the press releases is welcome to post notices to the News and Politics Comment Board.