Norilsk Nickel restoring cobalt production after 2022 fire, targets 3,000 tonnes annually from 2025

MURMANSK/MOSCOW. Feb 21 (Interfax) - MMC Norilsk Nickel's Kola MMC subsidiary will commission a new cobalt production facility this year to replace the one damaged by fire in 2022, the in-house publication KN51 reports, quoting Nornickel Senior Vice-President - Operational Director Alexander Popov.

He said the new facility planned to produce 3,000 tonnes of cobalt annually.

Construction started in 2024, and the facility will produce its first cobalt in the middle of 2025.

The Kola MMC nickel electrolysis shop cobalt department had the capacity to produce 2,500 tonnes of cobalt before the fire, which occurred in September 2022. After the fire, Nornickel started to extract cobalt from concentrate, enabling it to obtain up to 1,000 tonnes of cobalt metal per year and close all contracted volumes, Sergei Stepanov, Senior Vice-President - Operational Director, has said.

"Our current cobalt production capacity is 1,000 tonnes, and we will produce 3,000 tonnes at the new facility. That is, this is directly related to additional revenue and business efficiency for Kola MMC and the whole of Nornickel," Popov said.

"You'll recall there was a fire in the cobalt department in 2022, and we quickly restored and launched a mini-cobalt production facility with capacity of 1,000 tonnes. Many thanks to our colleagues for this, because we are one of Russia's key cobalt producers. The country's industry would have a shortage without our cobalt," Popov said during a visit to the Kola MMC industrial site in Monchegorsk.

The company's platinum group metals production chain started to operate as usual the day after the fire was extinguished.

A section to produce chemically pure precious metals will also be launched at Kola MMC in September, Popov said, describing this project not only as industrial but also scientific.

"Kola MMC is one of Nornickel's key divisions, because essentially, the whole range of products shipped directly to our customers is manufactured here. So it is important that colleagues work steadily, so deliveries to our consumers are not disrupted, and products are of the right quality," Popov said.

Kola MMC earlier began producing premium nickel, generating additional profit, Popov said.

The project to renovate the cobalt extraction department was designed by the Gipronickel Institute.

Nornickel is Russia's only cobalt producer. Russia is the world's second largest cobalt producer with a share of about 5%, way behind the leader, which is DR Congo. Russia produced 7,600 tonnes of cobalt 2021 but Congo produced 120,000 tonnes. The plan was to produce about 8,760 tonnes of cobalt in 2022, rising from an average of 5,000-5,500 tonnes in 2014-2017, ACRA experts calculated. Cobalt production increased 5.1% in 2024, Rosstat has said, without disclosing absolute figures.