Existing deposits

The Talnakh ore cluster is located in the Norilsk Industrial District in the north of the Krasnoyarsk Region, on the right bank of the Norilskaya River. Geologically, the Talnakh ore cluster is located on the north-western margin of the Siberian Craton and includes the world’s largest Oktyabrskoye and Talnakhskoye copper-nickel deposits. In the early 1960s, multiple deposits of high-grade, cuprous and disseminated ores were discovered within the area. Nornickel is still well supplied with base and noble metals from the uniquely rich and vast resource base of the Talnakh ore cluster developed through mining operations of its Polar Division.

The Norilsk ore cluster (NID) is also located in the Norilsk Industrial District. Brownfields within the NID include the northern part of the Norilsk-1 deposit producing disseminated copper and nickel sulphide ores since the 1930s. In 2020, the deposit was reassessed against new permanent exploratory standards for open-pit and underground mining. A feasibility study of permanent exploratory standards and a reserve statement for the Norilsk-1 deposit (northern part) were approved by the State Commission for Mineral Reserves of the Russian Ministry of Natural Resources and included into the State Register of Mineral Reserves (Minutes No. 6557 dated 20 May 2020).

To raise additional external investments in brownfield expansion in the northern part of the Norilsk-1 deposit, Nornickel has launched the South Cluster project. A licence to develop Norilsk-1 and also some of the Polar Division’s assets were transferred to Medvezhy Ruchey, a wholly owned subsidiary established specifically to implement the expansion project. Medvezhy Ruchey includes Norilsk Concentrator, an open-pit and an underground mine at Zapolyarny Mine, and tailing dumps No. 1 and Lebyazhye.

Kola MMC develops deposits located within a 25 km stretch between Nickel and Zapolyarny in the west of the Murmansk Region and grouped into two ore clusters: Western (Kotselvaara and Semiletka deposits) and Eastern (Zhdanovskoye, Zapolyarnoye, Bystrinskoye, Tundrovoye, Sputnik and Verkhneye deposits). The deposits in the Western and Eastern clusters have been developed since the 1930s and 1960s, respectively.

The Bystrinskoye deposit is located in the Zabaykalsky Region, 16 km east of Gazimursky Zavod. Nornickel owns 50.01% of GRK Bystrinskoye which develops gold-iron-copper ores of the Bystrinskoye deposit. The Bystrinskoye deposit and Bystrinsky GOK came online in 2019.

The Nkomati disseminated copper-nickel sulphide ore deposit is geologically part of the Bushveld Complex in South Africa. The deposit consists of several ore bodies. The major ones are a solid sulphide ore body (high-grade nickel ore) and the main mineralisation zone (MMZ ore). It also includes a peridotite chromite mineralisation zone (PCMZ) with a lower metal content vs the main mineralisation zone. The deposit is developed by Nkomati (50%-owned by Nornickel).