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(Wallace Refiners) – Nornickel, the world’s largest producer of palladium and high-grade nickel and a major producer of platinum and copper, announced today that its principal shareholders Interros, Rusal and Crispian after having reached a preliminary mutual agreement are proposing to the Board of Directors to consider a spin-off of Bystrinsky project in favour of all Nornickel shareholders.
The company’s major shareholders are proposing to allocate entire Nornickel’s stake in Bystrinsky project among all Nornickel’s shareholders. Norilsk Nickel holds 50.01% of shares in Bystrinsky project, which includes Bystrinskoye ore deposit and Bystrinsky concentrator. The management is currently preparing a spin-off plan for the Board review and approval.
Nornickel president Vladimir Potanin commented, “We welcome the decision of our major shareholders to support the spin-off of the Bystrinsky project. The management of Nornickel has done an outstanding job having built from scratch one of the leading mining assets in Russia, the largest greenfield project in the country’s mining industry. Today the project has assembled an excellent management team, it has a strong potential for the further standalone development as it undoubtedly enjoys a very favorable geographic location close to the border with China, the world’s largest consumer of copper. The project has its own and quite attractive investment story, which leads us to believe that its spin-off will create value for all our shareholders”.
Interros, UC Rusal and Crispian Group are beneficiary owners of Norilsk Nickel holding 34.6%, 27.8% and 4.7% of its shares, respectively.
Bystrinsky project, including Bystrinskoye ore deposit and Bystrinsky concentrator (Bystrinsky GOK), is owned by Nornickel (50.01%), CIS NRF Holdings (36.66%, representing the interests of Interros Group) and United Resources (13.33%, HOPU Investments). GRK Bystrinskoe is a leading mining company in the Far East of Russia with the annual ore processing capacity of 10 mtpa. In 2020, the project produced 63kt of copper and 241koz of gold in concentrate, with a revenue of $1,004m and EBITDA of $717m.
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