The company ceded a plot of land for construction of a highway to Norilsk Nickel

“Russian Platinum” of Musa Bazhaev at an auction gave up the right to lease the site to Norilsk Nickel, for which it had been fighting since 2012. Norilsk Nickel needs the site for the construction of a road to the Maslovskoye field, for which the company already owns a production license, and Russian Platinum needs it for the road to its Chernogorskoye field. Russian Platinum says that the company has a “cheaper” alternative option for laying the road, but does not rule out negotiations on the use of Norilsk Nickel’s road, to which it is ready to provide access “on mutually beneficial terms.”

MMC Norilsk Nickel won an auction organized by the Norilsk administration to lease a land plot (407 thousand sq. m) in the area of the Ergalakh water intake for the construction of a highway, as follows from the materials on the official website of Russia for posting information about the auction. The auction took place on March 27, MMC offered a monthly payment of 12.094 million rubles, the site was provided to the company for three years, and in two years it would have to build a road.

A source close to Norilsk Nickel told Kommersant that the company needs the site to build a road to the Maslovskoye deposit, which it intends to develop. According to preliminary data, the annual productivity of the mine will be at least 6 million tons of ore per year, development is estimated at $2 billion. Vladimir Potanin said in the fall of 2013 that Norilsk Nickel was inviting Rio Tinto and BHP Billiton to participate in this project. The company extended the exploration license for the field until the end of 2014 and plans to “obtain a production license under the right of a discoverer in the near future.” Maslovsky’s development “will allow Norilsk Nickel to maintain its resource base and ensure the required level of technological capacity utilization and product output for the next 20 years,” says a source close to the company.

This site was also claimed by Musa Bazhaev’s Russian Platinum, which previously stated that it needed the site to build a road to its Chernogorskoye field (the project is estimated at $1.2 billion). Since 2012, the company has been competing for the site with Norilsk Nickel, whose application to lease the site was approved by the Norilsk administration in December 2012. Russian Platinum, in parallel with challenging the administration’s actions in court, appealed to the FAS; in December 2013, the service recognized the authorities as violating competition. But Nornickel itself back in November refused to lease the site, which was put up for new auctions.

Vice President for Corporate Affairs at Russian Platinum Alexey Komov said that the company has already submitted an application for an “alternative site.” A source at Russian Platinum clarified to Kommersant that the company considered it “inappropriate” to raise the price, since the alternative option of building a road and its own terminal on the Yenisei “would be cheaper.” Kommersant's interlocutor did not disclose details. Meanwhile, a source close to Norilsk Nickel says that the company is “ready to consider a constructive proposal from Russian Platinum on joint use of the road on mutually beneficial terms.” Russian Platinum does not rule out negotiations on this.

The interests of Norilsk Nickel and Russian Platinum first openly collided in June 2012 after a competition was held to issue a license for the Norilsk-1 deposit (reserves - 851.3 thousand tons of nickel, 1.2 million tons of copper, 35.9 thousand tons of cobalt, platinum group metals and gold are present). Russian Platinum won the competition, Norilsk Nickel doubted the qualifications of the competition commission and disputed the results in the courts for about a year (all this time the results were not approved by the government). The government was inclined to the idea of canceling the competition and re-bidding, but in May 2013 the presidential administration stood up for Russian Platinum. In July, the Ministry of Natural Resources sent the results of the competition for approval to the government (where, however, companies were recommended to create a joint venture for the development of Norilsk-1). After this, the companies’ management held several meetings, discussing possible formats for joint work in Norilsk, but, according to Kommersant’s information, the parties have not yet been able to agree on specifics.

Anatoly Dzhumailo

“Russian Platinum” has lost its way