Russia's Novo Nickel, the world's largest palladium producer and a major producer of high-grade nickel, said on Monday its third-quarter nickel output rose 21 percent from the previous quarter to 53,945 tonnes.
Unlike many Russian companies, Novo Nickel has not been directly targeted by Russian sanctions for its actions in Ukraine, but Western suppliers far from the Russian market could pose long-term operational challenges to Novo Nickel's production.
In January-September, nickel production fell 9% year-on-year to 145,271 tonnes. During the same period, palladium and platinum production increased by 1% and 7%, respectively, to 2.15 million Troy ounces and 528,000 ounces.
Palladium production in the third quarter fell 13% sequentially to 660,000 Troy ounces.
Nornickel Chief Executive Vladimir Potanin, who holds a 36.6 percent stake in the company through his Interros Holding group, said Western sanctions, while not directly affecting the company, were limiting its ability to pivot to Asia and restructure its logistics chain.
Asia became Nornickel's largest market by revenue in the first half of 2023, and in July the company said it had started replacing its old mining equipment with supplies from so-called "friendly" countries, meaning countries that have not imposed sanctions on Moscow.
Sergey Stepanov, head of production at Nornickel, said in a statement on Monday that testing of the new equipment is continuing and its successful implementation is important for achieving operational objectives.
Stepanov confirmed that the company is still on track to meet its 2023 production forecasts of 204,000-214,000 metric tons of nickel and 241-2.56 million Troy ounces of palladium.
