All of Nornickel’s palladium to be processed on the Kola Peninsula
Russia’s mining giant Nornickel is shifting a key stage of its precious metals production from Siberia to the Kola Peninsula, making its plant in Monchegorsk the company’s sole processing site for palladium concentrate.
The changes will take effect from July 2026 and mark the completion of a major restructuring of Nornickel’s precious metals production chain.
The company is transferring processing of copper anode slime calcine — an intermediate product from which precious metals are extracted — from its Copper Plant in Norilsk to the Kola Mining and Metallurgical Company (Kola MMC) in Monchegorsk.
As a result, all of Nornickel’s palladium concentrate will be produced in the Murmansk region. According to Olga Severinova, chief technologist at the Kola Metallurgical Plant, this represents around 40 percent of global palladium production.
Previously, processing the copper slime calcine in Norilsk involved a complex four-stage operation that was both energy-intensive and time-consuming, tying up valuable metals in the production cycle.
According to the company, Monchegorsk’s chemical and metallurgical facilities can process the material more efficiently, reducing processing times while increasing the recovery rate of precious metals.
To accommodate the additional production, Nornickel has invested around 500 million roubles (€5,6 million) in modernising the Monchegorsk plant. The upgrade included replacing roasting furnaces, industrial filtration systems, pipelines, pumping stations and storage tanks.
The company also says it has upgraded the plant’s gas-cleaning systems to reduce its environmental impact.
Created in the late 1990s through the merger of the Pechenganickel and Severonickel plants, Kola MMC has become Nornickel’s main processing hub in north-west Russia. In addition to precious metals, the site produces electrolytic nickel, high-grade copper, cobalt and sulphuric acid.
The relocation of palladium processing is not the company’s only recent investment in the Murmansk region. Nornickel has also announced plans to invest 13.5 billion roubles (€150 million) in expanding the Severny Mine near Zapolyarny. If completed, the project is expected to secure ore supplies for the company’s local operations and extend the mine's working life until at least 2048.
