IQALUIT -- Baffinland Iron Mines has received interest from about 20 companies to partner in its $4-billion Mary River iron ore project in the Canadian Arctic, and hopes to nail down a deal this year, the company's chief executive said on Friday.

CEO Gordon McCreary told Reuters in an interview that eight of the 20 expressions of interest -- which include Asian players -- have come following the 2008 market crash. All of them involve confidentiality agreements, he said.

"In the fourth quarter of 2008 and the first quarter of 2009 things went deathly quiet but since that time, we now have 20 companies or thereabouts," Mr. McCreary said after a media presentation in Iqaluit held before the start of the G7 finance ministers and central bank governors meeting in the Canadian Arctic town.

Baffinland had originally hoped to have a strategic partnership in place last year to develop its iron ore deposit on Baffin Island in Nunavut territory, 600 kilometres north of the Arctic Circle.

But those plans were sideswiped by the global economic crisis. Mr. McCreary now hopes to reach a deal on a partnership this year or in 2011 at the very latest.

"There is definitively a sovereign feel to many of those new entrants ... but it's not just about China, there are other Asian players who are very interested in what we're up to as well."

Asian companies -- including state-owned miners looking to lock in metals supply to feed growing economies -- have been active in the past year picking up stakes in Canadian miners.

Mary River has reserves of about 365 million tons of ore grading an average of 65% iron, and about 500 million tons of ore resources.

The mine is expected to produce 18 million tons per year, with most expected to be shipped to Europe. A key challenge to developing a mine, however, is the problem of transporting ore from such a remote site.

Baffinland is open to structuring the partnership in a variety of ways, Mr. McCreary said, including a joint venture or the sale of an equity stake. The company could link up with more than one partner and would also be willing to become a minority partner as long as it was with "the right player," he said.

He expects the project to be 75% debt-financed and 25% equity.

The company's shares were up 1 Canadian cent at 49-1/2 Canadian cents on the Toronto Stock Exchange on Friday afternoon. The stock peaked at around $5 in late 2007, but was decimated by the 2008 market crash, as well as by concerns about the high costs and transportation challenges of Mary River.

© Thomson Reuters 2010