On January 14, a tender for the right to use the subsoil of the Ust-Yaivinsk area of the Verkhnekamsk deposit of potassium salts was held in Perm. A commission consisting of Anatoly Temkin, Deputy Governor of the Perm Region, representatives of the Natural Resources Ministry, Economic Development Ministry, State Mining Supervision Agency ("Gorgostekhnadzor"), Chief Natural Resources Department of the Perm Region voted to declare Uralkali winner of the tender and allow it to develop potassium salt reserves in the Ust-Yaivinsk area.

"It is hard to overestimate the importance of the right to develop the Ust-Yaivinsk area," said Maxim Bakshinsky, executive director of OAO Uralkali. "Without an ore base in the strategic development plan it is impossible to plan the development of such a giant of the potassium industry as Uralkali. This will allow the company to pursue a technical policy, a policy of renovating the mining and mine equipment. At the same, time we have assumed very serious obligations. First of all, they concern creation of new jobs. Commencement of operation also means additional tax receipts. When issuing the license the state had the only choice: to grant the license to an enterprise that is most adequate and has proved its potentialities, such as Uralkali is in the potassium business."

The available reserves of the Berezniki area where the mine field of Uralkali's first ore administration is located will last till 2015. In order to keep the mine working the Company's specialists have studied the Ust-Yaivinsk area and have carried out a feasibility study for the development of its reserves.

A part of the Ust-Yaivinsk area will be joined to the mine field of the first ore administration. This will allow the extend the operating period of the mine by several decades. The preparatory mining work will commence already this year, and the first tons of the ore will be obtained in 2009. It is planned that 3,300 thousand tons of sylvinite ore will be extracted every year in the new area of the mine field of the first ore administration.

The development of the Ust-Yaivinsk area will require large investments.