On Tuesday (May 22) Representatives of the Federal Agency for Subsoil determined the licensee to develop and Elan Elkinskogo deposits of nickel and copper — the last in Europe, large deposits of these metals.

Despite the prospect of changing the format of the event to identify the owner of Voronezh ore occurrences with the competition for the auction, Rosnedra yet made a decision on the transfer of assets «in the competition.» This decision turned out to be disappointing for the «Norilsk Nickel» — the most likely (according to early projections) of the license holder: Voronezh nickel mines got the Ural Mining and Metallurgical Company. In the «Norilsk Nickel» believe that the decision is unfair and Rosnedra plan to influence the situation.

By projecting the winner GOK plans to begin after further exploration of the geological mines (estimated in 2015−2016). According to preliminary calculations, specialists of the Ural Mining and Metallurgical Company of the Voronezh resources company will be able to produce about 40 thousand tons of nickel. Despite the fact that this metal UMMC previously released, smelting nickel management of the campaign expects to implement without additional investment in the construction of new facilities. For this purpose, it plans to use the equipment Mednogorsky MSCs, which specializes in the production of copper today.