en.Wedoany.com Reported - The owner of Russian Platinum announced on Thursday at the St. Petersburg Economic Forum that the company plans to commence production at its Arctic polymetal project in November. Currently, Nornickel is the only producer of platinum group metals (PGM) in Russia.

The project was originally scheduled to launch its first phase in 2024 but was delayed due to difficulties in procuring equipment caused by Western sanctions. The company's owner, Musa Bazayev, stated that the first output is expected in November this year.

Russian Platinum holds licenses for the Chernogorskoye deposit and the southern part of the Norilsk-1 deposit. These deposits contain copper-nickel ores rich in PGMs, which are primarily used in emission control catalysts and electronic devices. Located near Nornickel's core assets, the two companies agreed in 2018 to form a PGM alliance, but the plan collapsed in 2020 due to opposition from Nornickel's major shareholder, Rusal. In 2021, they signed a five-year offtake agreement for the Chernogorskoye plant to supply concentrate to Nornickel's Global Palladium Fund.

Nornickel, the world's largest palladium producer with a market share of about 40%, stated in a market report at the end of last year that Russian Platinum's project could add approximately 500,000 ounces of palladium and 200,000 ounces of platinum annually to Russia's output. According to Interfax, citing Bazayev, the project's capital expenditure has reached 500 billion rubles ($6.72 billion).

Bazayev said that the second phase of the project is expected to launch the southern section of the Norilsk-1 deposit, with an annual production capacity of 15 million tons of ore and 55 tons of PGMs. This would make Russian Platinum a major global supplier, though he did not provide a timeline for the second phase. He also indicated that Russian Platinum may resume discussions on a partnership with Nornickel.

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