I have brought up on this blog the new strategic plan from Russia’s Norilsk Nickel regarding it’s focus on large scale assets and limiting it’s engagement with smaller scale projects (hence the sale of their Australian assets to Poseidon over the last couple months and recent sales of African assets to BCL). Knowing the change in strategy, this has prompted the question – what’s next for Norilsk Nickel?
Internet sources are speculating about a plan by the company to invest $300 million in exploration activities around the world including a talc powder machine production line and a $35 billion investment in gold by 2025. The gold investment would include a gold mining, stone crushing business in South Africa. Overall the company expects that, through these investments, it can boost nickel production by 19%, copper by 49% and platinum production by 42%.
In their own backyard in Siberia, Norilsk Nickel is planning an increase in production of iron ore concentrate from the Chita region beginning in 2016. Furthermore, their exploration activities will continue on metallurgical coal and thermal coal in the Taymyr Peninsula.
According to their website, “Exploration activities in the Taimyr Peninsula are of top priority, they are targeted at the replenishment of the stocks of unique platinum-copper-nickel ores and other minerals at Polar Division to provide streamlined activities of the Company mining and metallurgical divisions in Norilsk Industrial Area. The work is primarily focused in the boundaries of the mining licenses of the fields being developed. These are deep horizons and flanks of Oktyabrskoye and Talnakhskoye fields, northern part of Norilsk-1 field. The second area is search and evaluation of the fields beyond the mining licenses (Maslovskoye field and other exploration prospects).”
They will also continue geological exploration operations within the north of Krasnoyarsk Territory and in the Murmansk region to not only maintain their core production but also to improve efficiency with their existing projects. They are also looking into new, remote sites within the Taymyr and Kola Peninsulas. Their main focus for new projects will be deposits of highly liquid raw material (high-grade assets) in these areas where Norilsk Nickel has the competitive home-turf advantage.
Source: http://www.nicolettemarie.com/2014/10/09/norilsk-nickel-expand-exploration-activities/