Norilsk Nickel Plans $20 Billion Program to Boost Arctic Output

OAO GMK Norilsk Nickel’s polar division, the mining company’s biggest earner in the past decade, will spend $20 billion by 2030 to stop production from falling, according to its head Evgeny Muravyov.

The division must invest in new projects to counter dwindling output as the ore it mines yields less metal, Muravyov said in an interview in Norilsk, a town north of Siberia where the unit is based. The division must raise ore output by about 3 percent a year to keep nickel production flat, he said.