Last year, Russian Copper Company acquired licenses allowing it to handle Levikhinskoye and Novo-Shaitanskoye deposits, says the spokesperson for the company. These deposits are now subjected to exploration work; in the future, an ore mining and processing enterprise with the annual output of 500,000 tons of copper-zinc ore and 15,000 tons of copper concentrate will be put up there; this is going to cost $80 million. Levikhinskiy mine is expected to be launched in 2009, Novo-Shaitanskiy mine one year later.

Russian Copper Company also bought a license entitling it to developing Degtyarskoye deposit in 2006 that is now at the exploration works stage. In 2008, there will be a mining and smelting industrial complex there that will produce 200,000 tons of gold ore, 200 kilos of gold, and 2 tons of silver a year. The project requires $8 million worth of investments and will probably be launched in 2008.