Nornickel weighs projects in new top market China
Russia’s biggest miner MMC Norilsk Nickel is weighing several new projects in copper, nickel and palladium in China as sanctions make cross-border payments and shipments increasingly difficult.
Nornickel executives held talks with potential Chinese partners this month and signed about ten memorandums of understanding, covering the whole group of metals the miner makes, two people familiar with situation said, asking not to be identified as the information is private.
While Nornickel has not been directly sanctioned by either the US or the European Union, its operations have been impacted by wider restrictions since Moscow’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine. The London Metal exchange barred new deliveries of Russian metal this year.
Most European and all US banks stopped funding Russian metals’ deals, while some clients decided not to continue trading with the country. That made China the biggest export market for Nornickel since 2023, accounting for over a half of its sales.
Trading with China has become more complicated this year. In June, the US widened its secondary sanctions criteria by broadening the definition of Russia’s military-industrial base, leaving Chinese banks more reluctant to serve Russian transactions.
Nornickel already said in April that it plans to set up a copper plant and joint venture with a local player in China, marking an “out-of-the-box solution” to sanctions risks. The company plans to complete the plant by mid-2027 and ship copper concentrate to China through the Northern Sea Route.
The talks held last week were centered around this project, but also covered others, including building a nickel plant for battery producers, the people said. Discussions about the nickel plant were reported by Reuters on Thursday.
A spokesperson for Nornickel declined to comment.
Comments
Research Reports
Projects
Latest Multimedia
Latest News
Showroom
Rentech provides renewable energy products and services to the local and selected African markets. Supplying inverters, lithium and lead-acid...
VISIT SHOWROOM
Goodwin Submersible Pumps Africa is sole distributors for Goodwin electrically driven, submersible, abrasion resistance slurry pumps.
VISIT SHOWROOM
Press Office
Announcements
What's On
Subscribe to improve your user experience...
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?
Receive 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)
➕
Recieve 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
RESEARCH CHANNEL AFRICA
R4500 (equivalent of R375 a month)
SUBSCRIBEAll benefits from Option 1
➕
Access to Creamer Media's Research Channel Africa for ALL Research Reports on various industrial and mining sectors, in PDF format, including on:
Electricity
➕
Water
➕
Energy Transition
➕
Hydrogen
➕
Roads, Rail and Ports
➕
Coal
➕
Gold
➕
Platinum
➕
Battery Metals
➕
etc.
Receive all benefits from Option 1 or Option 2 delivered to numerous people at your company
➕
Multiple User names and Passwords for simultaneous log-ins
➕
Intranet integration access to all in your organisation
