The long-awaited Udokan project in Russia's far east is coming on stream at a challenging time.

A state-backed Saudi venture would buy stakes in mining assets worth $15 billion in African countries, which will permit US companies to buy some of the production.

The worker's union had threatened on Thursday to stop work on Saturday, alleging an impasse in negotiation with the directors of Minera Panama.

The purchase price gives Nova a total equity value of C$190 million on a fully-diluted basis.

The negotiation remained stuck on disagreements over profit sharing and salary increase.

The mine started operations in 2007 and produced about 500 million pounds of copper since.

Nornickel this year failed to pay dividends on its 2022 results for the first time in 14 years.