Vladimir Potanin suppressed Musa Bazhaev

"Norilsk Nickel" and "Russian Platinum" are establishing a joint venture in Taimyr.
07.02.2018
Kommersant
Origin source
MMC Norilsk Nickel Vladimir Potanin, Oleg Deripaska and Roman Abramovich creates a joint venture with Russian Platinum Musa Bazhaev on the basis of a number of Taimyr assets of companies. The joint venture will produce up to 100 tons of platinum group metals per year, which is comparable to the production volumes of the Norilsk Nickel itself. The MMC will add the Maslovskoye deposit to it, and Russian Platinum to Chernogorsk and the southern part of the Norilsk-1 deposit, which Nornikel itself claimed in 2012-2013.

"Norilsk Nickel" and "Russian Platinum" signed a basic agreement on strategic partnership, which involves the creation of a joint venture to develop the companies belonging to the Norilsk industrial area. The shares in the joint venture will be distributed parity. The contribution of Norilsk Nickel will be a license for the development of the Maslovskoye field, and the contribution of Russian Platinum will be a license for the southern part of the Norilsk-1 deposit and the Chernogorskoye field.

JV "aims to create one of the world's largest producers of platinum group metals (PGMs) with a target production volume of 70-100 tons per year," the company said. Norilsk Nickel, the world's largest producer of PGM, produced 2.78 million ounces of palladium and 670,000 ounces of platinum (cumulative 3.45 million ounces, or 107.3 tons) in 2017. It is planned to create a joint venture before the end of 2018, after receiving the necessary corporate approvals and regulatory approvals.

The reserves of Maslovskiy are 728 thousand tons of nickel, over 1.1 million copper, 12.5 million ounces of platinum, 32.26 million ounces of palladium. The reserves of Montenegrin, suitable for open production, are 20.5 million ounces of platinum, palladium, rhodium and gold in the eastern part (10.4 million ounces of underground mining in the western part) and more than 800,000 tons of copper, nickel, cobalt. The reserves of the southern part of Norilsk-1 are estimated at more than 90 million ounces of platinum and gold and more than 3.3 million tons of copper, nickel and cobalt.

"Russian Platinum" acquired Montenegrin in April 2011. And for the southern part of Norilsk-1 "Russian Platinum" and MMC for more than a year fought in the courts and offices of officials. Entering the "Russian platinum" artel of prospectors "Amur" won the tender for the field in June 2012, but "Norilsk Nickel" did not agree with its results and in the autumn began legal proceedings. At the same time, as Kommersant reported, the government was at one time inclined to the idea of ​​canceling the results of the contest and issuing an auction license, but Mr. Bazhayev was supported in the presidential administration. Then the government began to recommend companies to create a joint venture to develop the southern part of Norilsk-1 - without access to the infrastructure in Norilsk, which is owned by MMC, the project is impossible. The license was received only in August 2013, after the victory in the courts, in June 2017 it was transferred to a subsidiary of the artel - OOO Taimyrskaya MMC.

In December 2016, "Russian Platinum" and VTB agreed on the development of Norilsk projects and attracting partners (the bank's share may be 20%). At the same time, Mr. Bazhaev noted that with the MMC "very far advanced over the past year." "Norilsk Nickel gave us the terms for using their infrastructure, namely: port, airport, electricity, water, roads, gas. Now there is a discussion of the price policy between our companies, "- said the businessman (quotes on Reuters). The presentation of the updated strategy of Norilsk Nickel in November 2017 indicated that the company conducts a dialogue on "potential cooperation or coordination with other license holders in the region."

Investments in Norilsk projects of the Russian Platinum were estimated at $ 4 billion, while the potential sources of the company's projects for the sources of the sources of "Interfax" and "K" were called Chinese Fosun and China Gold at different times, but no agreements were reached with them. VTB in 2017 received 3% in Montenegro GRK through the Cyprus Trimes Holdings Ltd. (under the control of the "Russian Platinum"). The volume of investments in Maslovskoye was not called, but in 2013 Vladimir Potanin spoke about the prospects of attracting global players to the project.

Now the companies reported that the project will be attracted to the project and other types of bank financing. The investment decision on the final parameters and terms of the project will be taken based on the results of the feasibility study, the preparation of which is planned before the end of 2019. Work on the project is scheduled to begin in 2020. At the same time, Norilsk Nickel will provide the JV with access to the energy and transport infrastructure of the company in the Norilsk industrial region.

According to Vladimir Potanin, investments in the joint project are estimated at about 250 billion rubles. "A significant part of the financing can be attracted on the basis of project financing," but at the first stage, Norilsk Nickel will provide refundable funds (quotation on Interfax). Mr. Potanin did not rule out the IPO of the new company "beyond the horizon of 5-7 years". According to Vladimir Potanin, the first commercial product of the joint venture will be issued in 2023. In addition to IPY, the company should produce about 50 thousand tons of nickel and 70 thousand tons of copper per year, says a representative of Norilsk Nickel.

"Norilsk Nickel" and "Russian Platinum" will invest 250 billion rubles in the fields on Taimyr
After years of confrontation, the companies create a joint venture
Vedomosti, 02/07/2018

 "Norilsk Nickel" and "Russian Platinum" will jointly develop in the Taimyr deposits of platinum, nickel and copper, because of the right to own companies that argued six years ago. The agreement on this on Wednesday in Krasnoyarsk was signed by the president of Norilsk Nickel Vladimir Potanin and the president of Russian Platinum Musa Bazhayev. The total investment is estimated at 250 billion rubles.

Companies are going to create a joint venture on a parity basis before the end of 2018. Norilsk Nickel will contribute to its capital a license to develop the Maslovskoye field, and Russian Platinum will be licensed for the Chernogorskoye field and Norilsk-1. All deposits are deposits of impregnated polymetallic ores in the Norilsk industrial area. The total reserves of the new company will be about 4,300 tons of platinum group metals and 6.3 million tons of nickel - this is the largest project of development of deposits of platinum group metals in the world, the representative of Norilsk Nickel underlines. Processing of these ores will allow to produce 70-100 tons of platinum group metals annually (from 2.78 million to 3.31 million ounces), Norilsk Nickel said. In addition, the joint venture will be able to produce 50,000 tons of nickel per year, a company representative added. For comparison: "Russian Platinum" in 2017 at the mine "Conder" produced approximately 44,939 ounces of platinum, "Norilsk Nickel" - 670,000 ounces of platinum and 2.78 million ounces of palladium.

The new company will be the world's third largest producer of platinum group metals, Potanin said. At the first stage, "Norilsk Nickel" will provide the new company with a loan, he said. Potanin did not name the sum, saying that it will be determined after the preparation of the feasibility study of the project. Potanin explained that it would be fair to give the new company a loan, since Russian Platinum had already invested heavily in the development of its assets. Bazhaev clarified that "Russian Platinum" has invested "several hundred million dollars." The president of Norilsk Nickel also noted that his inclusion in the "Kremlin list" did not affect the company's ability to attract financing, including in foreign, European and American banks.

 The investment decision is planned to be taken by the partners in 2019. The work is expected to commence in 2020. Under the terms of the license, production in Montenegro should begin in 2022, at Norilsk-1 in 2023, and at Maslovskoy in 2018 The representative of the company spoke about this in 2016).

The joint venture will attract project financing, Potanin said. In September 2017, a representative of Russian Platinum told Vedomosti that the development of the Chernogorskoye field and Norilsk-1 was estimated at $ 6.2 billion. In 2015, Norilsk Nickel said that it intended to spend on the development of the Maslovskoye deposit 85 billion rubles. ($ 1.3 billion at the exchange rate at that time). Potanin estimated the total investment in the project at 250 billion rubles. ($ 4.4 billion at the current rate). Preliminary feasibility study of the project involves the construction of not only enrichment production, but also metallurgical, the president of Norilsk Nickel said.

"We expect that as we enter the planned targets, our joint venture may become one of the leaders among the world producers of platinum group metals both in terms of production volumes and profitability," Potanin said. "By developing cooperation with Norilsk Nickel, we are creating the world's largest cluster for the production of platinum and palladium. Three licensed sites contributed to the joint venture are located compactly and have significant synergetic potential from a geological and logistic point of view, "Bazhayev said.

Because of Norilsk-1, Norilsk Nickel and Russian Platinum quarreled in 2012. Then Rosnedra held a tender for the right to develop this field. The victory was won by "Russian Platinum", which previously did not work in the Norilsk industrial region, but only owned a license there for the right to develop the Chernogorsk copper, nickel and platinoid deposits. For several years, Norilsk Nickel has been trying to challenge the decision of Rosnedra, but without success. A year later, "Norilsk-1" by the decision of Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev was given to "Russian Platinum". During this time, "Russian Platinum" has repeatedly complained that Norilsk Nickel is obstructing its work: it does not give access to infrastructure. Now all disagreements are settled - the joint venture will use the infrastructure of Norilsk Nickel.

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