Alisher Usmanov’s Metalloinvest Holding must pay the full sum for the license entitling the company to the development of Russia’s largest Udokanskoye copper deposit in Zabaikalskiy Territory by June 2009, RIA Novosti quoted Anatoly Ledovskikh (head of the Federal Subsoil Resources Agency) as saying.

‘The deadline for the payment is the month of June,’ he said.

According to Ledovskikh, the company has already promised to pay the sum in full.

‘In case they fail to do so, they will lose the five billion RUR one has to pay as the down installment for the license,’ RIA Novosti quotes.