The long-awaited contest for the possession of rights to use large areas with deposits of nickel ore in the Voronezh Region Federal Subsurface Management Agency will hold Russia in the I quarter of this year. Such timing of the project ordered Rosnedra Prime Minister R. F. Vladimir Putin, to endorse the corresponding order at the end of December 2011. And since, according to the Russian legislation, the notice of such auctions FAN is required to publish in the media 90 days before the event, the official news about the competition can be expected before the end of January.

According to preliminary calculations, the reserves of nickel on Elanskaya field (in P2 category) of the order of 350 thousand tons, and Elkinskom mineralization -… 390 thousand representatives of MMC Norilsk Nickel, claiming to possess the rights of development of these fields, according to their last major nickel mines in Europe.

In addition to nickel resource base stations contains cobalt and copper-rich (about 95 thousand. Tons). According to the analysis Elkinskogo and Elan fields, based on them can create a mining and processing plant with a capacity of 2 — 5 million tons of copper-nickel ore pellets per year.

According to the authorities of the Voronezh region, where the above-mentioned areas, the project significantly affect the flow of funds in the budget of the region and will provide many families with jobs in short supply.