Nornickel to shift part of nickel output to copper plant during repairs
Russian metals producer Nornickel plans to start experimental nickel smelting at its copper plant this year to maintain output during a major furnace reconstruction scheduled for 2027, a company vice president said.
The innovative move will allow the company to keep up nickel production during the overhaul.
Nornickel, the world's biggest palladium producer and a major supplier of high-grade nickel, plans to overhaul the smelting furnace at the Nadezhda Metallurgical Plant in the Arctic city of Norilsk in 2027, Alexander Leonov, head of the company's Norilsk unit, told the Norilsk TV channel on Thursday.
The shutdown will last about 270 days and temporarily remove roughly half of the plant's capacity, he said.
To offset the outage, Nornickel plans to convert part of its copper plant to produce nickel matte instead of copper - an "unconventional solution", Leonov said. The company is preparing production lines for the switch and aims to start pilot industrial tests this year.
Nornickel said in 2024 that it intended to close its Arctic copper plant and move copper production to China by mid-2027. Talks with Chinese partners are ongoing, according to a participant in a company conference call on Thursday.
The company expects nickel output of between 193 000 metric tons and 203 000 tons in 2026, roughly in line with 2025. Palladium output is forecast at between 2.415-million ounces and 2.465-million ounces, down by up to 11% year on year.
Nornickel's main shareholder and CEO Vladimir Potanin has previously said recent production declines are temporary, citing depleted ore reserves, the switch to non-Western equipment suppliers and the loss of some markets. He expects output to stabilise by 2028.
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