27 June 2008By Robin PaxtonGUBKIN, Belgorod Region -- Soviet geologists were looking for oil when they explored the Belgorod region, 500 kilometers south of Moscow. Instead, they unearthed Europe's largest iron belt. Legend has it that the pit blasted into the fertile soil is big enough today to fit the world's population twice over. It has certainly helped make billionaires of its three owners. "We have enough left for more than 100 years. In principle, our reserves are unlimited," Nikolai Dronov, the chief engineer at the Lebedinsky mine, said at the edge of the pit. Nearly half a kilometer below, 28 trucks built by U.S. firm Caterpillar and Russia's KamAZ filled up with rocks for the long, winding drive to the surface. Lebedinsky is part of the metals empire of Alisher Usmanov, Vasily Anisimov and Andrei Skoch....
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