RIA Novosti reported that Russia's largest nickel producer Norilsk Nickel plans to invest over USD 1.5 billion in development of the Honeymoonwell Nickel Deposit in Australia.

Mr Roman Panov director of overseas operations department at Norilsk said that planning for the deposit will be held in 2012-2013 and the company will start infrastructure construction in 2014. The deposit is scheduled to be launched in 2016-2017.

He added that "When the project reaches full design capacity, it will allow us to increase our overall nickel concentrate production by 40,000 to 45,000 tonnes."

He said that the nickel giant was holding talks with several banks, including Asian financial institutions, to get loans for the project.

Source - RIA Novosti

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