Investment in development of Udokan copper deposit may reach $6bn

MOSCOW. Alisher Usmanov’s metal giant Metalloinvest may need up to $6bn to develop the East Siberian Udokan copper deposit, Director General Andrei Varichev said.The project’s feasibility study is to be completed in 2013, he said. “We have a positive decision of Vnesheconombank (VEB), which reads that the project is consistent with the mission, regulations, norms and standards of the lender, but we need to fulfil a number of conditions to receive the funds. The maximum loan period is about 15 years,” Varichev said.The project operator is Metalloinvest’s subsidiary, Baikal Mining Company.Udokan is Russia's largest copper deposit, with estimated ore reserves of 1.375bn metric tons and copper reserves of 19.95mn tons. The deposit also has 11,900 tons of silver reserves.