Drafting has started of a dossier to nominate the Ilmensky State Nature Reserve for inscription on the UNESCO World Heritage List. The nomination process has been initiated by the Chelyabinsk Region Authority and supported by the RF Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment and the RF Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The property was added to the RF Tentative List in August 2008.

The "Ilmensky Mountains" natural site will be nominated under criterion viii: to be outstanding examples representing major stages of earth's history, including the record of life, significant on-going geological processes in the development of landforms, or significant geomorphic or physiographic features. The Ilmen Mountains is a unique geological phenomenon, world-renowned for semiprecious and rare-metal mineralization of its pegmatite lodes and for widespread occurrence of nepheline syenites - alkaline rocks, which are normally very rare in the Urals. The very diverse rocks of the Ilmen Mountains are united under one name, "Ilmenogorsky complex". Mineralogically, the Ilmenogorsky complex is a unique geological feature across the globe. It was it's mineral variety that caused the establishment of this world's first mineralogical reserve in 1920.

Experts from the Natural Heritage Protection Fund, the Ilmensky State Nature Reserve, RAS Institute of Geography and D. S. Likhachev Institute of Cultural and Natural Heritage will participate in the work on the preparation of the "Ilmensky Mountains" nomination file.