[ferro-alloys.com]Norilsk Nickel, world's largest nickel producer, is to hike nickel ore throughput capacity at its Talnakh Concentrator in Krasnoyarsk, Russia to 18 million mt/year from 10 million mt/year now, the company said on its website.

The project is planned for commissioning in 2023, it said, noting that upon completion, ore mined at the Talnakh deposit will be processed at the Talnakh concentrator, which should yield economies of scale and improve recovery rates.

The project is estimated to cost Rb40 billion ($61.72 million), making the Talnakh concentrator the world's largest concentrator for nickel sulfide ores, the producer said.

"Having all Talnakh ores treated at a single concentrator will free up the Norilsk concentrator capacity to treat feed coming from the South Cluster project," it said on its website Thursday.

The South Cluster mining project, aimed at developing the Northern part of the Norilsk-1 deposit, has mineable ore resources of 165 million mt, the producer said, noting the ore mining capacity would hit 9 million mt/year in 2027.

Stripping works are set to launch already in 2019, with the mine ramp-up to start in 2021-2022, it said, noting that in the first phase of the project an existing open pit mine will be expanded, with the underground mine revamp set for the second phase.

The South Cluster mining project is estimated to cost over Rb45 billion ($69.4 million), according to the producer. Norilsk Nickel set 2019 output goal for nickel at 220,000 mt to 225,000 mt, its data showed.

(S&P Global Platts)

• [Editor:王可]