Russia. V.Putin orders the carrying out a tender on the development of nickel deposit in the Voronezh region in Q1

Russian premier V.Putin has signed an order, in accordance with which the tenders for the right to develop the Elanskoye and Elkinskoye sites of nickel deposit in the Voronezh region are to be carried out in Q1, 2012, they said to “Abireg” in the agency for development and innovation (Voronezh region).
It is said in the document that Rosnedra is to organize the contests during this period.
The area of the Elanskoye deposit is 28.9 square kilometers according to the data of the Government. The forecast copper resources (P1) are assessed at 5.6 thousand tons, nickel – 54.1 thousand tons and cobalt – 10.3 thousand tons. The area of the Elkinskoye deposit is 8.6 square kilometers. Forecast reserves of copper are 54.6 thousand tons, nickel – 393 thousand tons, cobalt – 14.4 thousand tons (P2).
The tenders will be open. If a number of participants show an equal economic performance, the winner will be the one, who gave maximum size of one-time payment for subsurface use.
The decision on carrying out of an auction was taken on January 14, 2011 during a meeting of V.Putin with the CEO, chairman of the Board of Management of GMK “Norilsk nickel” V.Strzhzhalkovsky.The Voronezh governor A.Gordeev spoke positively, concerning the plans on the development of nickel deposits, and promised to support an investor, who will implement the project. He promised that the development of the deposits will be “safe”. Norilsk nickel has already announced it will invest approximately 1.2 billion roubles in case it wins.
The governor of Voronezh asserted at a press-conference on November 28 that the Ural ore mining and smelting company also lay claim to nickel deposit in the Novokhopersky district.
According to the governor, the government of Russia prepares the tender. They want the development of the deposit to be initiated at once, not in a number of years, in accordance with all environmental requirements. “The winner will be the one, who will offer the best terms as an investor,” the governor said.
The contest was to be carried out in late 2011, but later it was postponed until 2012.
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Translated by Iraida Idiyatova