Russian diversified mining group OJSC MMC Norilsk Nickel has signed a declaration of strategic partnership with South Africa’s Department of Mineral Resources (DMR).

The “partnership aims at implementing lucrative mineral resource development projects in South Africa”.

The signing of the strategic partnership took place following a business meeting between Norilsk general director and management board chairperson Vladimir Strzhalkovsky and DMR director-general Sandile Nogxina in South Africa on March 29, but was not announced until March 31.

“As part of the strategic partnership, the DMR gave support to Norilsk Nickel’s engagement jointly with South Africa’s Industrial Development Cor-poration (IDC) in establishing the National Mining and Prospecting Fund,” said the Russian group in a statement. “The fund will form [a] strategic resource base for [the] main types of mineral resources in South Africa.” No details about the National Mining and Prospecting Fund have yet been released.

The partnership is also intended to “further the agreements reached” at the meeting between Strzhalkovsky and South African President Jacob Zuma, which took place on March 27. At that meeting, Zuma affirmed: “South Africa is ready to proceed with supporting the participation of MMC Norilsk Nickel in new ore extraction and processing projects.”

The Russian group is the world’s number one producer of nickel and palladium, the number four producer of platinum and rhodium, the number five producer of cobalt and the number nine producer of copper. Its output also includes, as by-products, gold, iridium, ruthenium, selenium, silver and tellurium.

In South Africa, Norilsk already holds 50% of Nkomati Nickel, acquired when the Russian group bought LionOre Mining International in 2007. The other 50% of Nkomati is owned by South African group African Rainbow Minerals (ARM), and the local company also manages the joint venture. Nkomati is located some 300 km east of Johannesburg, in the Machadodorp district, Mpumalanga province.

Norilsk is also active in Botswana, where it owns 85% of Tati Nickel (the other 15% being held by the Botswana Government). Tati and Norilsk’s share in Nkomati are grouped under Norilsk Africa. Outside Russia, Norilsk also has operations in Australia and Finland.

However, Norilsk’s main operating areas are in Russia, namely the Polar and Kola Peninsula divisions. The group has announced that it will spend nearly 1,8-billion roubles (some $60-million) on exploration this year, with the top priorities being the Allarechensk area in the Kola Peninsula division and the Maslovskoye and Oktyabrskoye deposits in the Polar division. The company plans to drill a total of 114 480 m and forecasts that it will increase its resources by 550 000 t of copper, 180 000 t of nickel and 135 t of platinum-group metals (PGMs).

Exploration in the period 2008 to 2010 cost almost 3,97-billion roubles (about $140-million) and resulted in the company reserves being increased by more than 3,5- million tons of copper, 3,4 million tons of nickel and some 1 920 t of PGMs. The new copper reserves found are equivalent to 2,4 times the company’s production of the metal over that same period. The new nickel reserves are equivalent to 3,4 times the production volume, while the ratio for the PGMs is 4,2.

At the beginning of the month, Norilsk announced that Alexander Voloshin had been elected chairperson of the group’s board of directors (not to be confused with the management board). In addition, Bradford Mills was elected chairperson of the strategy committee of the board of directors, Andrei Bougrov was elected chairperson of the budget committee, Claude Dauphin as chairperson of the audit committee and Marianna Zakharova as chairperson of the corporate governance, nomination and renumeration committee.