Moscow, March 29, 2021 — Nornickel, the world’s largest producer of palladium and high-grade nickel and a major producer of platinum and copper, has stopped water inflow at the Oktyabrsky mine and confirms the resumption of production at the Oktyabrsky and Taimyrsky mines in accordance with the remediation plan.

On March 25^th, the second phase was completed: additional water barriers were installed, the adjacent workings were filled with backfill mix, and water was released.
On March 27^th, water flow was stopped by closing the valves after the stowing mix had solidified. More than 32 kt of concrete mixture was poured into the mine workings during the two stages.

The third stage of the plan includes a set of measures to restore normal operations of the mines. Under the plan, Oktyabrsky mine (5.0 mtpa of ore production) will fully resume production in the first ten days of May and Taimyrsky mine (4.3 mtpa) is scheduled to resume production in early June.

“The second phase of operations was completed on schedule as per the recovery work plan. Thanks to the professional performance of the miners, we have managed to stop the water inflow. We are already working on restoring the operations; this will be done in phases, in accordance with the approved work schedule,” said Nikolay Utkin, Senior Vice President of Nornickel and Head of the Norilsk Division. “Along with the recovery operations, the company is also taking measures to eliminate the risk of water inflow in the future.”

The company estimates that the 2021 output guidance in the baseline scenario will fall short of the initially announced plans by about 35 kt of nickel, 65 kt of copper and 22 t of platinum group metals.

Norilsk division completes phase 2 of repairs at Oktyabrsky and Taimyrsky mines