Norilsk Nickel – Page 7 – Republic of Mining

Russia: Investigation into possible pipeline break ordered as Daldykan River turns bright red – by William Watkinson (International Business Times – September 7, 2016)

September 8, 2016

https://ca.news.yahoo.com/

Authorities in the Arctic city of Norilsk have begun an investigation into a possible pipeline break after a river running through the city turned red. Residents of the nickel-producing city, located in the north east of the country, noticed that the Daldykan River had changed colour on Tuesday (6 September).

Speculation by social media users centred on a possible break in pipes serving the nickel-producing town, leading to industrial waste leaking into the river. Other theories mentioned iron ore seeping into the water through the ground.

In a statement, the natural resources and environment ministry in Russia said that they were probing complaints of unknown chemical pollution, possibly caused by a “break in a Norilsk Nickel slurry pipe”.

Lone Norwegian mayor accuses Russian oligarch of fouling the Arctic: When will Oslo follow? – by Anna Kireeva (Bellona.org – August 23, 2016)

August 24, 2016

http://bellona.org/

KIRKENES, Norway – Following a gathering of politicians and citizens in this town earlier this month, calls from its mayor to forbid travel to a Russian oligarch for his hand in polluting Northern Norway have intensified.

Norilsk Nickel, produces a third of the world’s nickel with facilities on the Kola Peninsula, which Norwegian and other scientists have said are responsible for extremely high concentrations of sulfur dioxide on their side of the border, something Rosprirodnadzor, Russia’s official government environmental watchdog has long denied.

But Rune Rafaelsen, mayor of Kirkenes told Bellona in an interview that he’s tired of watching as nothing is done to solve the 26-year-old crisis, and is appealing to Vidar Helgesen, Norway’s Minister of Climate and the Environment to hit Norilsk Nickel where it hurts.

Northern exposure: Life in Norilsk, Russia’s most polluted city – by Andrei Iskrov (Russia Beyond the Headlines – August 16, 2016)

August 17, 2016

https://rbth.com/

Almost completely shut off from the outside world, the city of Norilsk in northern Siberia is a surreal place dominated by the world’s largest nickel plant. Pollution from the enterprise and the harsh climate make life hard for those who work here, but there is also a pride in surviving in such an inhospitable environment.

In the northern part of Siberia’s vast Krasnoyarsk Territory, not far from the Arctic Ocean, lies the city of Norilsk. It is often referred to using superlatives – the northernmost city in the world with more than 100,000 inhabitants, the most polluted city in Russia, one of the coldest cities in the world, and the home of the world’s most northern railway.

Snowdrifts on the streets of Norilsk may not melt until the following winter, the numbers on buildings are two meters big so that they can be seen during a blizzard and real summer here usually lasts for only one week. Temperatures in the city frequently drop to -50 degrees Celsius (-58 degrees Fahrenheit) and below in winter.

The Kola Mining and Metallurgy Combine: Norwegian politicians and citizens call Norilsk Nickel ‘dirtiest industry in the Arctic’ – by Anna Kireeva (Bellona.org – August 11, 2016)

August 12, 2016

http://bellona.org/

KIRKENES, Norway – Residents of this Norwegian-Russian border town have long suffered enormous sulfur dioxide emissions from Russian industry, and say they’re fed up with weak reactions from their own politicians to the two-decade old problem.

An area event last week gathered hundreds of residents of the small town in highlighting their worries over the heavy metal emissions wafting in from the Russian Kola Peninsula’s Kola Mining and Metallurgy Company’s industrial complex towns, and requested their own local politicians break deadlocked talks between Oslo and Moscow to improve the situation.

The Kola company is spread out across Northwest Russia in three of the dirtiest industrial towns in the country: Nikel, Zapolyarny and Monchegorsk. The Kirkenes event highlighted the recent publication of a Norwegian-authored book entitled Stop the Soviet Death Clouds, the name of the eponymous movement that was sparked in the early 1990s to fight trans-border pollution from the newly disbanded Soviet Union.

Op-Docs: My Beautiful, Deadly City – by Victoria Fiore (New York Times – August 9, 2016)

August 11, 2016

http://www.nytimes.com/

Not many people have heard of Norilsk, an industrial cityin an isolated part of Arctic Russia. No roads or trains lead there; internet is severely limited; and it is it closed to foreigners.

Getting there, I would find out, is very difficult. Yet despite its obscurity, Norilsk has one of the largest mining and metallurgical complexes in the world and produces most of the earth’s palladium, an essential mineral in electronics and automobiles. Most of us probably have a bit of Norilsk in our pockets, bags or homes.

Having this connection to such an alien place intrigued me; Norilsk was the most important city I’d never heard of.

China’s nickel imports still flattering to deceive – by Andy Home (Reuters U.S. – May 25, 2016)

May 25, 2016

http://www.reuters.com/

LONDON – China is importing more nickel than ever before. Headline imports of refined metal hit a new all-time record high of 49,012 tonnes in April. The cumulative tally of 157,600 tonnes over the first four months of the year represents a 115,000-tonne increase over the same period of last year.

Imports of ferronickel have also surged to 294,700 tonnes so far this year, which is already more than any previous calendar year with the exception of 2015.

Somewhere in this flow of material lies an unfolding bull narrative, one of falling Chinese production and resurgent demand. The problem is that there is too much else going on in the import data to get a good view of the shifting Chinese nickel landscape.

Norilsk Sees Nickel in Cars Tripling as Tesla Drives Sales – by Yuliya Fedorinova and Andrey Lemeshko (Bloomberg News – April 14, 2015)

May 19, 2016

http://www.bloomberg.com/

Nickel demand from the auto industry is set to rise as much as threefold in five years as output of electric and hybrid cars gathers pace, according to Russia’s largest producer of the metal.

“Hybrid and electric cars make more demand for nickel,” Anton Berlin, head of strategic marketing at OAO GMK Norilsk Nickel, said in an interview in Moscow. “It will rise because many automobile companies, such as Tesla Motors, have very ambitious plans for the future.”

Electric and hybrid vehicles are increasingly becoming a low-cost alternative for consumers as their batteries — which use nickel — get cheaper and more efficient. That may aid a recovery in the market for the metal after prices slumped because of oversupply in the stainless-steel industry.

Norilsk Nickel Urges Output Cuts From Other Miners – by Alex MacDonald (Wall Street Journal – May 17, 2016)

May 18, 2016

http://www.wsj.com/

LONDON– Norilsk Nickel Mining & Metallurgical Co. (NILSY), the world’s largest nickel producer, is urging other nickel miners to consider cutting production in response to the low price environment, but said it won’t contribute to those cuts.

The Russian nickel producer, which also produces palladium, platinum and copper, estimates that about 70% of the world’s nickel production capacity is currently loss-making, but only 17% is at risk of shutting down even though the nickel price hit a 12-year low in February and is still down 37% over the past year.

“We do hope that…this year there will be serious discussions at management and boardroom [levels] as to how they should react to the market, because for us there should be some response from the industry” to the price drop, said Sergey Dubovitskiy, Norilsk’s head of strategy. But “given our lowest cost position on the cost curve, this shouldn’t be us,” he told The Wall Street Journal in an interview on Tuesday.

Top Palladium Miner Rebuffs Risk of Tesla Electric Car Boom – by Yuliya Fedorinova (Bloomberg News – May 16, 2016)

May 16, 2016

http://www.bloomberg.com/

The rise of Tesla Motors Inc.’s electric cars won’t be enough to change the market for conventional vehicles or dent demand for the precious metals used to filter exhaust fumes, according to GMK Norilsk Nickel PJSC.

The lack of infrastructure to charge them and the pressure on power grids means that in the long term, the vehicles may comprise just 15 percent of the total auto market, according to Anton Berlin, head of analysis and market development for Norilsk. In the next five years, the market’s size will be limited to about 2 percent.

Norilsk is the world’s biggest producer of palladium, which are used along with platinum in catalytic converters that reduce car pollution. While the company would lose some business if electric cars, which don’t produce toxic emissions, becomes a significant part of the auto industry, it would benefit from more demand for nickel, which is used in the batteries.

Norilsk calls for nickel production to be reduced – by Henry Sanderson (Financial Times – March 13, 2016)

March 14, 2016

http://www.ft.com/

London – The world’s biggest nickel producer, Norilsk Nickel, has warned that prices for the metal are unlikely to rise unless lossmaking producers start to shut mines and close production.

Up to a quarter of global nickel producing capacity needs to shut, Pavel Fedorov, vice-president of the company, said in an interview.

“If other producers are rational we shall see a market readjustment — but if other producers don’t behave rationally then prices will remain low until rational behaviour returns to the market,” he said.

[Norilsk, Siberia] Life in the freezer: Inside the northernmost city on Earth whose residents endure – 55°C temperatures and two months of total darkness every year – by Caroline McGuire (Daily Mail – January 26, 2016)

January 26, 2016

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/

Isolated, polluted and – above all – cold, it is a city built on misery and blood.

It is also a city of surprising wealth – the reason for its unlikely existence. Norilsk, squatting 250 miles north of the Arctic Circle, has the largest deposits of nickel, copper and palladium on earth and its hellish mines are thriving.

Gulag prisoners began expanding the Siberian settlement in 1935 and over the next 20 years, 500,000 slaves took part in its construction. Thousands lost their lives.

Today, Norilsk is the northernmost city on earth and still a place of extremes. The average temperature is -10C, reaching -55C in the endless winter.

Norilsk to meet investors amid hopes of Russian reopening – by Michael Turner (Reuters U.S. – May 14, 2014)

May 14, 2015

http://www.reuters.com/

LONDON, May 14 (IFR) – Norilsk Nickel is meeting bond and equity investors in London on Monday, as market participants grow increasingly optimistic that some Russian borrowers might melt through the international fundraising freeze before 2016.

The Russian palladium and nickel firm, rated BBB-/BBB-, is not marketing a specific bond at the meetings, according to two of the sources, but giving fund managers an update. Barclays is arranging the meetings.

“My personal view is that they do not need to raise funds,” said an investor from a Swiss firm who has been invited to the event.

Still, Norilsk Nickel is a potential issuer as the firm has not been sanctioned by the West. Bankers say that investors are showing more interest in potential Russian supply.

“We’ve had some reverse enquiry about Russian corporates,” said one banker. “We’re a way off the market properly reopening but we’re having more interesting conversations than six months ago.”

No Russian issuer has come to the international market since Gazprom sold a US$700m one-year note on November 5.

Norilsk, Russia — The inescapability of the company town on the tundra – by Mia Bennett (Cryopolitics.com – February 2015)

February 17, 2015

http://cryopolitics.com/

There are many ways of framing Arctic climate change.

On the one hand, countries in the south often see themselves as potential victims of the melting Greenland ice sheet and rising sea levels. On the other hand, in the north, Arctic residents often view themselves as the victims of massive levels of industrialization and urbanization in the south. Most of the world’s greenhouse gases emissions, after all, can be traced to the United States, China, Europe, and Russia.

These emissions are driving environmental changes like warming temperatures and ocean acidification, which are exacerbated in the north by the polar amplification effect. Arctic residents then wonder whether it is fair for them to have to pay, often with their traditions and livelihoods, for people in the south to enjoy all the creature comforts of modernity.

But it’s not so simple as that. The Arctic, too, has sooty, polluting cities, some of which have a higher carbon footprint than cities in the middle and southern latitudes. Several of these can be found in the Russian Arctic, which is more industrialized than any other Arctic country’s northern area.

CORRECTED-Weak rouble helps Russia’s Norilsk weather metals fall – CEO – by Polina Devitt (Reuters U.S. – January 23, 2015)

January 23, 2015

http://www.reuters.com/

NORILSK, Russia, Jan 23 (Reuters) – Falling metal prices are being more than offset by the rouble slide, allowing Russia’s Norilsk Nickel to maintain margins despite lower foreign currency earnings, its chief executive said.

CEO and co-owner Vladimir Potanin, Russia’s eighth richest man with a $12.6 billion fortune from the world’s largest nickel and palladium miner, said if metal prices remained at current levels, Norilsk’s 2015 foreign currency revenues would decline from a year earlier to $10 billion.

But he said lower metal prices would not affect the company’s earnings before interest, tax and depreciation (EBITDA) margin, which would exceed 40 percent this year. He did not provide data for 2014.

Many Russian companies have been hit by a downturn in the economy, suffering from weak oil prices and Western sanctions over the Ukraine crisis, but exporters are enjoying the 50 percent drop in the rouble since the beginning of last year.

Potanin said more important for his core business, based 300 km (186 miles) inside the Arctic Circle where it is dark for more than a month in winter, were prices for the company’s main metal products.

Norilsk to sell African nickel stakes to Botswana’s BCL for $337 mln – by Silvia Antonioli (Reuters India – October 20, 2014)

October 20, 2014

http://in.reuters.com/

Oct 20 (Reuters) – Russia’s Norilsk Nickel , the world’s top nickel and palladium producer, said it had agreed to sell stakes in two African nickel mines for $337 million to BCL, a Botswana-based copper mining firm looking to expand.

Norilsk will transfer to BCL its 50 percent interest in the Nkomati nickel and chrome mine, in South Africa, and its 85 percent stake in the Tati Nickel Mining Company, in Botswana, the two companies said on Monday.

BCL will also assume all attributable outstanding debt and environmental and rehabilitation liabilities associated with the assets.

Norilsk embarked on a new strategy last year that includes pulling out of international assets that it has identified as non Tier-1 mining operations. Tier-1 is an industry designation for what are typically the biggest and lowest-cost mines.

“The sale of the African operations marks a major milestone in our commitment to deliver the new corporate strategy. The transaction is part of the management’s roadmap to release capital from non-core assets and will have a positive impact on the company’s return on invested capital”, Pavel Fedorov, Norilsk Nickel First Deputy CEO said in a statement.