Monchegorsk has now the world’s largest nickel refining facility

Nickel matte is shipped from Norilsk to the port of Murmansk and goes by rail to Monchegorsk. (Atle Staalesen/The Independent Barents Observer)
Kola GMK has boosted its nickel output by 50% after refining was moved from Norilsk in Siberia.

«A large-scale upgrade is now at full swing,» says Igor Lisitskiy, Deputy CEO for Reconstruction at Kola Mining Metallurgical Combine (Kola GMK) in a press-release.

According to Lisitskiy, the factory in Monchegorsk has become the world’s largest nickel refining facility. «Monchegorsk site produces up 165,000 tons of nickel per year,» he says.

Last winter, the old nickel refining plant in Norilsk on the Taymyr Peninsula was closed down and production moved to the Kola Peninsula. The factory in Monchegorsk now receives nickel matter from both the smelter in Nikel near Russia’s border to Norway and from the Nadezhda Metallurgical Plant in Norilsk.

The matte from Norilsk is shipped via the port of Dudinka to Murmansk and transported further by train to Monchegorsk.

As previously reported by the Barents Observer, also copper production in Monchegorsk is up 43% and amounted to 39,201 tons the first six months of 2017. Nornickel has copper production both in Norilsk and Monchegorsk.

Related stories from around the North:

Canada: Test clean energy solutions in south before implementing them in Arctic communities: report, Radio Canada International

Finland: Nord Stream 2 applies for Finnish building permit to build gas pipeline, Yle News

Norway: ‘We will come back’, Statoil says after disappointing results in Barents Sea, The Independent Barents Observer

Russia: Chinese company confirms interest in trans-Arctic shipping to Arkhangelsk, The Independent Barents Observer

Sweden: Volvo to go all electric starting in 2019, Radio Sweden

United States: U.S. transportation secretary announces efforts to speed up project development in Alaska, Alaska Dispatch News

Thomas Nilsen, The Independent Barents Observer

For more news from the Barents region visit The Independent Barents Observer.

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