Posted on 24 Oct 2025
Nornickel on Thursday maintained its full-year domestic production guidance unchanged, after reporting mixed performance in the third quarter.
The Russian miner, which also produces palladium and platinum, anticipates its guidance for nickel to be the same as in 2024, around 196,000-204,000 t. For copper, the guidance this year is slightly lower at 343,000-355,000 t. This does not include 64,000-68,000 t of copper in concentrate estimated at the Trans-Baikal Division.
During the third quarter, Nornickel produced 53,555 tonnes of nickel, which is down 4% year-on-year, but 18% higher than in Q2 2025. The quarterly increase was attributed to higher volumes of processed raw materials accumulated during the “inter-navigation [shipping] pause” in the second quarter, plus increased production of nickel sulphide concentrate at Kola Site.
Copper output, however, shrank 7.4% y-o-y to around 100,000 t. This is also 4% lower than the volume reported in the previous quarter, Kallanish notes. The decline reflects an increased share of disseminated ores in processing, which have relatively lower copper content, the company explains.
Year-to-date, Nornickel reported 4% annual declines for its nickel and copper production, with volumes reaching 140,000 t and 313,000 t, respectively.
Source:Kallanish
