MOSCOW, October 24. /TASS/. Norilsk Nickel ramped up nickel output by 23% year-on-year in 9 months of 2022 to 159,240 tons, the company said in a statement on Monday.

Palladium output increased by 11% year-on-year to 2.13 million troy ounces.

The output of copper in January-September of 2022 increased by 10% year-on-year, to 317,150 tons, and platinum production increased by 6%, to 491,000 troy ounces.

"Taking into account all the ongoing initiatives to minimize the negative impact of the newly emerged operating risks, we reiterate previously announced production guidance from own Russian feed for the financial year 2022," Senior Vice-President, Director of Operations, Sergey Stepanov said as quoted by the company’s press service.

Norilsk Nickel explained that the increase in production in January-September was due to the low base of the same period last year, when the Oktyabrsky and Taimyrsky mines, as well as the Norilsk Concentrator, were suspended due to accidents.

As for platinum group metals, the increase in output is attributed to processing of accumulated work-in-progress inventory during the inter-navigational season (May-June 2022)

In the third quarter, nickel production increased by 22% year-on-year to 59,280 tons, copper output grew by 1%, to 113,220 tons. At the same time, the output of palladium increased by 0.4%, to 712,000 ounces, and platinum - by 8%, to 171,000 ounces.

Norilsk Nickel is the world’s largest producer of nickel and palladium and the major producer of platinum, cobalt, copper, and rhodium. The company also produces gold, silver, iridium, selenium, ruthenium, and tellurium. Nornickel production units are located in the Norilsk Industrial District, on the Kola Peninsula and the Trans-Baikal Territory in Russia, as well as in Finland and South Africa.