https://www.miningweekly.com

Norilsk sees increase in all metals during Q1

26th April 2018

By: Anine Kilian

Contributing Editor Online

     

Font size: - +

JOHANNESBURG (miningweekly.com) – Russian palladium and nickel mining company Norilsk Nickel, which also owns operations in Finland and South Africa, increased production of all key metals in the first quarter of the year.

“The main phase of our downstream reconfiguration programme was completed last year and work-in-progress inventory levels got normalised. In addition, the company also actively processed copper concentrate purchased from Rostec. As a result, metal production from our own Russian feed increased in the first quarter by 8 to 22% year-on-year,” COO Sergey Dyachenko said in a statement on Thursday.

Consolidated nickel production in the first quarter amounted to 54 063 t, a 1% year-on-year increase. Nickel output from the company’s Russian feed increased 8% year-on-year to 53 322 t.

“The growth was mainly attributed to the increase in processing volumes of nickel matte shipped from Polar division to Kola and Norilsk Nickel Harjavalta as result of downstream reconfiguration.”

Consolidated copper production increased 18% year-on-year to 111 598 t during the three-month period.

Palladium and platinum were produced solely from the company's own Russian feed, with their volumes increasing 6% to 583 000 oz and 138 000 oz, respectively. In the first quarter of 2018, production of platinum-group metals from third party feed was stopped due to the practical suspension of third-party feed processing at Norilsk Nickel Harjavalta, in Finland.

The company confirmed its 2018 production targets for metal produced from its own Russian feed, but lowered the 2018 production target for the Bystrinsky (Chita) copper project, near the Chinese border.

Dyachenko said ihat the reduced production target was as a result of ramp-up issues of equipment, which the company would sort out in the current quarter.

In April, the first batch of copper concentrate from the new project was produced during the hot commissioning phase.

The Bystrinksy project is now expected to produce between 25 000 t and 31 000 t of copper and between 90 000 oz and 110 000 oz of gold.

The production guidance for the group, excluding the Chita project, is 210 000 t to 215 000 t of nickel, 400 000 t to 420 000 t of copper, 2.63-million to 2.73-million ounces of palladium and 600 000 oz to 650 000 oz of platinum.

Edited by Mariaan Webb
Creamer Media Senior Deputy Editor Online

Comments

The content you are trying to access is only available to subscribers.

If you are already a subscriber, you can Login Here.

If you are not a subscriber, you can subscribe now, by selecting one of the below options.

For more information or assistance, please contact us at subscriptions@creamermedia.co.za.

Option 1 (equivalent of R125 a month):

Receive a weekly copy of Creamer Media's Engineering News & Mining Weekly magazine
(print copy for those in South Africa and e-magazine for those outside of South Africa)
Receive daily email newsletters
Access to full search results
Access archive of magazine back copies
Access to Projects in Progress
Access to ONE Research Report of your choice in PDF format

Option 2 (equivalent of R375 a month):

All benefits from Option 1
PLUS
Access to Creamer Media's Research Channel Africa for ALL Research Reports, in PDF format, on various industrial and mining sectors including Electricity; Water; Energy Transition; Hydrogen; Roads, Rail and Ports; Coal; Gold; Platinum; Battery Metals; etc.

Already a subscriber?

Forgotten your password?

MAGAZINE & ONLINE

SUBSCRIBE

RESEARCH CHANNEL AFRICA

SUBSCRIBE

CORPORATE PACKAGES

CLICK FOR A QUOTATION