Norilsk Nickel sells its last Australian asset, Lake Johnston

Norilsk Nickel, one of the largest and most significant joint stock companies in Russia for the production of metals, is about to conclude a deal to sell a subsidiary of Lake Johnston. The facility is located in western Australia and will be taken over by the Australian steel company Poseidon Nickel Ltd. Together with the "lake", the shares of the Emily Ann and Maggie Hays mines will go. It is not yet known how much profit the Russian metallurgical giant will ultimately receive, but the previous deal to sell Australian mines cost local companies $ 1.5 billion (at that time these were the Black Swan and Silver Swan mines).

Nikel's management took such a step in order to write off its reserve for environmental reasons, which guarantees considerable monetary compensation for the company. The General Director said that Norilsk Nickel does not consider it expedient to preserve assets that do not bring proper profit to their shareholders, thereby operating at a loss for the OJSC. Nickel is now actively involved in the divestiture of subsidiaries, both in Australia and in other countries. Lake Johnston was the last asset to be placed in Australia, and its assets were mothballed last year.

Norilsk Nickel is the main supplier of nickel and other metals not only in the Russian but also in the foreign market. The company produces huge volumes of nickel, cobalt, rhodium, copper, as well as gold and silver. At the same time, it is nickel that remains the main "gold mine" for Norilsk Nickel, and Lake Johnston makes it possible to produce at least 12,000 tons of this metal per year. The asset had to be mothballed due to the fact that the situation with the sale of nickel on the world market had changed in the last year, and the economic circumstances were far from being the best. Having got rid of the unprofitable asset, Nickel will increase the profit of its shareholders by an order of magnitude.