Russia’s Norilsk in talks to sell Bystrinsky’s metal to China

TIANJIN, Oct 21 (PRIME) -- Russian metals giant Norilsk Nickel is in talks to sell products from its future Bystrinsky ore mining and processing plant to China and possibly attracting investors for the plant from the country, First Deputy CEO Pavel Fyodorov told PRIME in an interview Tuesday.

“The interest of our Chinese partners is multidimensional, it does not only imply buying the plant’s products, but also participation in its capital and provision of long-term project financing. These issues are more of a complex cooperation with Chinese partners,” Fyodorov said.

He declined to name the companies, but said they are market leaders.

“They are end users of copper concentrate and large traders,” he said.

The Bystrinsky plant will produce almost 3 million tonnes of ore concentrate per year and about 66,000 tonnes of copper, he said.

He also said that Norilsk Nickel plans to sell non-core assets by 2018, but this year any deals are unlikely, as the company wants the deals to be profitable for its shareholders. The non-core assets include airline NordStar and a 13% stake in power holding Inter RAO.

Norilsk Nickel will present its investment program for the ore mining sector in March 2015, Fyodorov said. The company’s current 2014-2016 investment program envisages about U.S. $2 billion of annual investments, including spending $1.6-2 billion on the development of existing projects in the three years, $800,000–$1.2 billion on developing the Skalisty mine and $300,000-500,000 on other projects.

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