According to Norilsk Nickel, in the third quarter of 2022, the company produced 59,000 tons of nickel (+22% QoQ), 113,000 tons of copper (+1%), 712,000 ounces of palladium (+0.4%) and 171,000 ounces of platinum (+8%).
The company’s statement also said that in the first 9 months of 2022, nickel production increased by 23% year-on-year to 159,200 tons, copper by 10% to 317,000 tons, palladium by 11% to 2,128,000 ounces and platinum by 6% to 491,000 ounces.
Senior Vice-President – Director of Operations, Sergey Stepanov commented on the production results, “In the third quarter of this year, our main focus was put on the recovery of the Norilsk concentrator to its full capacity and mitigation of newly emerged risks, which have occurred as a result of changes in the geopolitical situation. Currently, the timely delivery of spare parts for the imported machinery and equipment and complications with logistics represent the most acute risks for our operations. Nonetheless, we have managed to achieve certain progress in mitigating these risks, having rolled out new logistics schemes and established alternative routes for the supply of spare parts.
At the same time, search for new suppliers of high-performance mining equipment to replace the existing fleet remains an important medium-term task. To this end, fairly shortly we are planning to start testing new mining equipment supplied by the manufacturers from friendly countries.
The modernization of Norilsk Concentrator has been continued, with an aim to recover the plant’s ore processing capacity to its design parameters by the end of this year.
In general, we managed to meet the production targets for the third quarter and 9 months of 2022. The output of all key metals increased both year-on-year and quarter-on-quarter.
Taking into account all the ongoing initiatives to minimize the negative impact of the newly emerged operating risks, we reiterate previously announced production guidance from own Russian feed for FY2022.
Nevertheless, the newly-emerged challenges for the Company remain highly acute, and mitigation of risks of timely supply of critical equipment and spare parts remains on the top of our priorities list. For the time being we remain cautious regarding the execution on our production program targets in 2023”.
ABOUT THE COMPANY
MMC Norilsk Nickel is a diversified mining and metallurgical company, the world’s largest producer of palladium and high-grade nickel and a major producer of platinum and copper. The company also produces cobalt, rhodium, silver, gold, iridium, ruthenium, selenium, tellurium and other products.
The production units of Norilsk Nickel Group are located at the Norilsk Industrial District, on the Kola Peninsula and Zabaykalsky Krai in Russia as well as in Finland.
MMC Norilsk Nickel shares are listed on the Moscow and on the Saint-Petersburg Stock Exchanges, ADRs are accepted for trading on the Saint-Petersburg Stock Exchange.
Norilsk Nickel fully supports the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and the UN Sustainable Development Goals. The company considers social responsibility and commitment to the principles of sustainable development as one of the pillars of operational efficiency and business development. Nornickel seeks to continuously improve its activities in the areas of environmental protection, human rights, health and safety, environmental impact assessment, and biodiversity preservation. The company spent RUB 221.5 billion on SDG-linked projects in 2021.
Vladimir Malakhov, Rough&Polished
