Khan Resources CEO Martin Quick has said the company plans to ask a Mongolian court to overturn a decision by the country”s Nuclear Energy Agency to invalidate mining and exploration licenses held by the company”s subsidiaries with effect from October 8. Quick said he believes the invalidation of the licenses is in response to Russian pressure on Mongolia to provide access to uranium deposits.

Khan, which agreed in February to be acquired by China National Nuclear Corp, said it was informed that the invalidations related to “non-compliance issues” raised last year, which the company maintains it has since dealt with. According to a statement on the NEA website, however, the agency cited a rule that companies with uranium assets must notify the government of plans to restructure or change control within a certain time.

Quick said the company is in constant contact with CNNC, and that the bid has not been affected by the notices of invalidation. Khan has spent about USD20 million on the project to date. “There”s a lot of politics involved, and rather underhanded politics,” he said. “I think the goal of Russia has always been, and certainly in the last year and a half or so, to go back into Mongolia and take back the Soviet-era uranium mines that were developed there. And hopefully get them for nothing by pressuring the Mongolians.”