[ferro-alloys.com]First Vice-President, Chief Operating Officer, Sergey Dyachenko commented on the

1Q18 production results: “As the main phase of our downstream reconfiguration program was completed last year and thus work-in-progress inventory levels got normalized, the Company increased production of all key metals in the first quarter of this year. In addition, the Company also actively processed copper concentrate purchased from Rostec. As a result, metal production from the Company’s own Russian feed increased in the first quarter by 8–22% year-on-year. Furthermore, Norilsk Nickel Harjavalta was almost 100% loaded by the Company’s Russian feed. In April 2018, the first batch of copper concentrate, produced during the hot commissioning stage aiming at reaching the project’s target parameters at Bystrinsky GOK (Chita Copper Project), was shipped to Chinese customers. We have however reduced the 2018 production targets for the Chita project due to the ramp-up issues at the FLS and Outotec supplied equipment, which we plan to sort out in this quarter. This year, Kola MMC’s nickel refining capacity is scheduled for intensive modernization and transition to a new chlorine leaching technology.Overall, we confirm our 2018 targets for metal production from our own Russian feed.”

In 1Q18, consolidated nickel production amounted to 54 kt increasing 1% year-on-year (y-oy).Nickel output from the Company’s own Russian feed increased 8% y-o-y to 53 kt. The growth was mainly attributed to the increase in processing volumes of nickel matte shipped from Polar division to Kola MMC and Norilsk Nickel Harjavalta as result of downstream reconfiguration.

In 1Q18, nickel output at Kola MMC increased by a minor 1% y-o-y to 38 kt, which was driven mostly by the processing of additional volumes of nickel matte shipped from Polar division.

In 1Q18, output at Nkomati (50% Norilsk Nickel owned) reduced и amounted to 2 kt of nickel, 0.7 kt of copper, 6 koz of palladium and 2 koz of platinum. The decrease from the same period of last year was attributed to a lower ore output and lower metal grades.

• [Editor:王可]