The nickel deposit in Voronezh in southern Russia is said to be Europe’s last undeveloped of substantial size.
- We have surveyed the deposits already, and we know that there are two very promising deposits there, Norilsk-Nickel General Director Vladimir Strzhalkovsky told Prime Minister Vladimir Putin when the two met for a chat last Friday, reads the transcript from the meeting posted at the Government’s portal.
If Norilsk-Nickel wins the competition for development of the Voronezh deposits, the plan is to produce pellets that would be transported to the company’s smelting shop in Nikel on the Kola Peninsula. In Nikel, pellets are melted to high grade matte before it is transported to the refinery smelter in Monchegorsk, also on the Kola Peninsula, where pure nickel is produced.
- Up to two million tonnes of ore will be processed annually, Strazhalkovsky told Putin. If started soon, the mines in Voronezh can starts delivery in 2018.
In 2009, Norilsk-Nickel’s mines in Zapolyarny on the Kola Peninsula gave near eight million tons of ore, of which it was produced 109,000 tons of nickel and 59,000 tons of copper, according to information posted at the company’s web-portal.
Read also: Zapolyarny modernization delayed – again
No information is given on the content of sulphur in the Voronezh ore. If the ore contains the same amount of sulphur as the local ore on the Kola Peninsula, it can briefly be estimated that the pollution of sulphur dioxide from the smelters on the Kola Peninsula will increase with 15 percent if no modernization of the plants is implemented before 2018.
Read also: Medvedev orders measures against cross-border pollution
