Nornickel to invest $1.43 billion in new copper plant in Murmansk Region

MURMANSK, July 19. /TASS/. The Norilsk Nickel Company (Nornickel) will invest in construction of a copper plant in the Murmansk Region’s Monchegorsk 106 billion rubles ($1.43 billion), the regional information policy authority told TASS.

The project, dubbed Big Copper, which is due to begin in 2022, is a new copper facility, which will be built to replace the outdated shop, closed in Monchegorsk in spring, 2021. According to the company, the new plant will produce twice more copper.

“The idea is to build a new modern metallurgical plant to make cathode copper. Investments in this unit only make slightly more than 106 billion rubles,” the authority quoted CEO of the Kola MMC (a part of Nornickel) Evgeny Borzenko as saying during a meeting with the Murmansk Region’s Governor Andrei Chibis.

In addition to the plant, the company will build in Monchegorsk a Feinstein separation facility, where investments are more than 33 billion rubles ($446 million). Kola MMC’s CEO stressed the company had made those decisions due to the favorable investment climate in the Murmansk Region.

“The practical incentives that we will have and which the new federal legislation offers, the subsidies and support from the Murmansk Region, as well as arrangements and support from energy generating companies regarding energy costs for the project have made this plan possible,” the Murmansk Region’s governor said.

Norilsk Nickel is a diversified mining and metallurgical company, the world’s largest producer of palladium and high-grade nickel and a major producer of platinum and copper. The company also produces cobalt, rhodium, silver, gold, iridium, ruthenium, selenium, tellurium, sulphur and other products. Norilsk Nickel Group’s production units are located in the Norilsk Industrial District, on the Kola Peninsula and in Chita region in Russia as well as in Finland and South Africa.

This article first appeared on TASS.