Nornickel Completes Rapid Overhaul of Smelting Furnace at Nadezhda Plant

Nornickel has successfully completed a large-scale overhaul project at its Nadezhda Metallurgical Plant, resulting in the first batch of matte being smelted in a newly refurbished weighted smelting furnace. The Nadezhda plant is a key component of Nornickel’s operations, processing concentrates from the Talnakh and Norilsk Concentrators to produce matte for copper and nickel smelting in the Murmansk Region.

Nornickel, a leading global producer of nickel, copper, platinum, and palladium, reported last year that it expects to produce between 184,000 and 194,000 tons of nickel, 334,000 to 354,000 tons of copper, 2.296 to 2.451 million troy ounces of palladium, and 567,000 to 605,000 troy ounces of platinum.

The overhaul involved constructing a new weighted smelting furnace at the Nadezhda plant. The project included setting up a coordination center to manage repairs, utilizing real-time information to resolve issues swiftly. Notably, artificial intelligence was deployed for the first time in Nornickel's repair process to identify and address potential problem areas.

Advanced equipment, such as hydraulic breakers, demolition robots, spider cranes, and plasma cutters, was used throughout the project. Over 3,000 workers participated in the repair process, with no foreign specialists involved. The repair was completed in less than 60 days, significantly faster than the usual 90 days, and resulted in a 25% increase in the plant's raw material processing capacity.