LME Resumes Nickel Deliveries from Nornickel’s Finnish Plant After Audit Delay

The London Metal Exchange has started accepting nickel deliveries from the Norilsk Nickel Harjavalta plant in Finland—of Russian mining giant Nornickel—ending the temporary halt that started in July 2024. This was not due to sanctions but also a delay in performing an audit to confirm the reliability of metal supplies coming into LME warehouses.

Nornickel had earlier informed its customers that the audit would be delayed until October 3, but the company said it had completed the LME requirements ahead of time.

In earlier sanctions this year, imposed by the U.S. and the U.K., imports of copper, nickel, and aluminum coming from Russia affected the acceptance of some metals into warehouses of the LME. However, nickel briquettes and cathodes produced at the Harjavalta plant have been the only Russian-origin products accepted by the LME since the sanctions took effect under the LME on April 13, 2024.

Norilsk Nickel Harjavalta refines nickel matte fed from Nornickel's Kola MMC into high-purity nickel and nickel compounds before providing them to various industries, such as electric vehicle Li-ion battery manufacturing. This factory provides supplies for big companies such as BASF and can produce over 60,000 tons of nickel annually. Production in 2023 was cut to 50,000 tons due to challenges in the supply of raw materials.

Nornickel is still one of the biggest refined nickel producers in the world, and by the end of 2024, the company is expecting production of nickel within a range between 184,000-194,000 tons.