Norilsk Nickel, the world’s largest nickel and palladium producer, announces preliminary consolidated production results for the first quarter of 2016.
In Q1 consolidated nickel production amounted to 64 kt, down by 6% YoY. Nickel output from the company’s own Russian feed reached 52 kt, down 5% YoY. The decrease was driven mostly by the ongoing reconfiguration of downstream production facilities at Polar division, increase of work-in-progress materials in transit and reduction of low-margin tolling operations at Kola MMC.
Copper production amounted to 87 kt, down by 3% YoY. Copper output from the company’s own Russian feed reached 85 kt, down by 1% YoY. The reduction was mainly attributed to lower copper content in mined ore.
Palladium and platinum output amounted to 642 koz (up by 1% YoY) and 171 koz (up by 4% YoY) respectively. Palladium output from the company’s own Russian feed reached 626 koz (up by 5% YoY), while platinum output amounted to 164 koz increasing by 9% YoY. The increase was attributed to the processing of the work-in-progress materials.
In Q1 Polar and Kola divisions combined nickel output decreased by 6% YoY, to 52 kt. Nickel production in Russia decreased due to several reasons: increase of work-in-progress materials in transit due to downstream reconfiguration at Polar division; lower nickel content in mined ore at Polar division; reduction of low-margin tolling operations at Kola MMC.
In January-March copper output in Russia stayed almost flat YoY at approximately 86 kt. The reduction of the production volumes from the company’s own Russian feed at Kola MMC and minor increase of production from third-party feed was attributed to lower copper content in nickel matte delivered from Polar division.
In Q1 in Russia the output of palladium increased by 4% YoY, to 633 koz, and the production of platinum went up by 7% YoY, to 167 koz, driven by the processing of work-in-progress materials. The output increase at Kola MMC from the company’s own Russian feed was attributed to processing of copper cake containing PGMs received from Norilsk Nickel Harjavalta.
In Q1 Norilsk Nickel Harjavalta produced approximately 12 kt of nickel, up by 4% YoY. The increase was driven by concentrate from third parties and trial processing of Russian feed.
Copper output amounted to approximately 2 kt, down by 37% YoY. The reduction was attributed to scheduled shipment of copper cake for processing to Kola MMC.
Norilsk Nickel Harjavalta decreased the production of saleable palladium by 51% YoY, to 9 koz, and of saleable platinum by 46% YoY, to 4 koz, due to scheduled shipment of copper cake containing PGMs to Kola MMC. (Ukrainian metal)