In the Voronezh region, an entire city entered the rally against UMMC plans

In the Voronezh region, another rally was held against the plans of the Ural Mining -Smother Company (UMMC) to begin the extraction of non -ferrous metals in Chernozemye. About 5 thousand people came to the protest in Novokhopersk, RBC reports.

If we take into account that only about 6.5 thousand people live in Novokhopersk itself, almost all residents of the city visited the rally. At the same time, activists from Voronezh, Borisoglebsk, Uryupinsk and other settlements within a radius of 100 km joined the action.

The rally participants decided "by all means to achieve a decision on the extraction of copper-nickel ores as an anti-people project, the execution of which will lead to an environmental disaster and the death of the Black Earth Agricultural region." In the resolution adopted by the results of the rally of the resolution, activists announced their right to use land and natural resources in the interests of the population.

In June 2012, a similar rally in Borisoglebsk collected, according to various sources, from 5 to 10 thousand people. According to local residents, the development of nickel deposits will turn the Black Earth to barren land, pollute the Hooper River and jeopardize the disappearance of the Russian Haundice brought into the Red Book.

A rally in Novokhopersk. Photo from the site http://savekhoper.ru

The protesters decided to collect 100 thousand electronic signatures against the extraction of copper-nickel ores in the Central Black Earth region on the website “Movement in Protection of the Khopra”. In addition, at the rally the start of the “Million Letters to the President” campaign was announced with a categorical protest against Nickel’s production in the Voronezh region.

Recall that in early June 2012, as a result of the victory in the competition, the right to develop the Yelansky and Elkinsky Nickel deposits in the Voronezh region received structures of the Ural mining -metallurgical company (UMMC). The company went around the Norilsk Nickel, who was considered by the favorite of the Norilsk Nickel, despite the fact that the amount that the winner proposed for the deposits was much more modest than the Norilsk Nickel rate. The UMMC application was inferior in many other parameters, but the commission, for unknown reasons, decided in its favor.

Norilsk Nickel was originally going to challenge the results of the competition, especially since the confusion in the documents of Rosnedr quite allowed to do this. However, after mass protests of local residents against the development of the deposit began in the region, the company decided not to dispute the results of the competition on the Elanskoye and Elkinskoye copper-nickel deposits.

“In conditions when residents of the Voronezh and Volgograd regions consolidatedly speak out against industrial production in the territories adjacent to the Novokhopersky Reserve, the leadership of the Norilsk Nickel MMC refers to anxious statements of ecologists and considers it impossible to oppose such a position of the population,” the company said in an official statement .