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Russian metals producer Nornickel has improved its 2021 production forecast slightly as one of its mines is resuming work ahead of schedule after flooding, the company said in a statement on Monday.
Nornickel, the world’s largest palladium producer and a leading nickel producer, downgraded its 2021 output forecast by 15%-20% in March due to inflow of water to two its mines, which account for 36% of ore mined by the company in Russia.
Nornickel currently expects to produce 190,000-200,000 tonnes of nickel and 335,000-355,000 tonnes of copper in 2021. Its 2021 palladium production is expected at 2.35 million-2.41 million troy ounces of palladium and 580,000-640,000 ounces of platinum, it said.
Its Oktyabrsky mine will resume full production this month after flooding and is already running at 60% capacity. Its Taimyrsky mine is scheduled to resume production in early June.
This incident and another one – partial collapse of its processing plant during maintenance in February – affected Nornickel’s production of nickel and copper in the first quarter, it added.
Its January-March nickel production fell by 10% year on year to 46,639 tonnes, while copper output was down by 21% to 91,292 tonnes.
However, its output of platinum group metals rose due to the ramp-up of a new production line: palladium output increased by 40% to 766,000 ounces and platinum by 23% to 184,000 ounces.
(By Polina Devitt; Editing by Steve Orlofsky)
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