UMMC says development of two Voronezh nickel fields reasonable

VORONEZH, Oct 12 (PRIME) -- Russia’s Ural Mining and Metallurgical Company (UMMC) has acknowledged industrial development of two nickel fields near the city of Voronezh – the Yelanskoye and Yelkinskoye fields – with reserves of about 1 million tonnes reasonable, UMMC said in a statement late on Wednesday.

“The combined reserves of nickel at the two fields amount to about 1 million tonnes if we carry out additional exploration. The total recovery of nickel from ores of the Yelanskoye and Yelkinskoye fields will amount to 87.7% with the cut-off grade of nickel at 0.3%, which is an adequate content for industrial development,” the company said.

The major product of the fields is nickel, while the list of byproducts includes copper, cobalt, sulfur, platinum, palladium, gold, and silver.

UMMC’s Mednogorsk Copper-Sulfur Plant starts preparation for development of the two fields, and development of the documentation will be finished until July 2020. If all stages of the project go according to the plan, UMMC will start construction of mining facilities at the fields before July 2021, and launch a mining and processing plant around July 2026, the company said.

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