MOSCOW, February 12 (RIA Novosti) - Renova Group, a leading Russian asset management company, said on Tuesday it had obtained a license to produce manganese in South Africa.

Renova, controlled by tycoon Viktor Vekselberg, received the license February 8, to mine manganese under the Kalahari Manganese project aimed at making high added value products and building processing facilities in South Africa.

It was earlier reported that Renova's investment in the project, expected to be implemented within 18 months, could total $1 billion. Renova is expected to develop a manganese deposit with reserves of about 300 million metric tons together with two South African state-controlled companies.

Renova is a stakeholder and strategic investor in leading Russian stand-alone and holding companies in the metallurgical, oil, machine engineering, mining, chemical, construction, housing, utilities and financial sectors.