MMC Norilsk Nickel announced preliminary consolidated production results for 1st quarter 2009

Norilsk Nickel announced preliminary consolidated production results for the first quarter of 2009 at its Polar and Kola Divisions in Russia and international operations in Finland, Australia, Botswana and South Africa.

• Overall saleable nickel production in the first quarter of 2009 amounted to 69 thousand metric tn comparing to 75 thousand metric tn in the first quarter of 2008.
• Overall saleable copper production in the first quarter of 2009 decreased to 96 thousand metric tn from 104 thousand metric tn for the same period in 2008.
• The Company has produced 590 thousand ounces of palladium and 141 thousand ounces of platinum in the reporting period.

The reduction in overall saleable nickel production in the reported period is explained by the placement of Australian assets on care & maintenance, decline in nickel production at the Harjavalta refinery in Finland, and by the minor decrease in nickel production at the Russian operations due to accumulation of intermediaries at the Kola Division.

The Polar and Kola Divisions in Russia produced 55.2 thousand metric tn of nickel in the first quarter of 2009.

Copper production of the Russian divisions of the Company amounted to 90.8 metric tn in the first quarter of 2009, which is by ca. 2 thousand tn lower than budgeted. The deviation from the approved production plan is due to the reduction in treatment of products with low metals content.

Palladium and platinum production at the Kola and Polar divisions in the reporting period amounted to 556.6 thousand troy ounces of palladium, and platinum production reached 131.8 thousand troy ounces which is as per the approved production plan.

Overall production of nickel concentrate by Tati Nickel and Nkomati in the first quarter of 2009 totaled 5.5 thousand metric tn which is generally in line with the production plan. The minor underproduction of Nkomati was due to unfavorable weather conditions.

In February 2009, following the shut down of the Cawse, Waterloo and Silver Swan operations in the fourth quarter of 2008, the Lake Johnston and Black Swan operations were also put on care & maintenance as part of the cost-cutting and reassessment program for international nickel assets of the Company. Nickel concentrate production in the first quarter of 2009 before suspension of Australian operations amounted to 1.2 thousand metric tn.

The Harjavalta refinery in Finland produced 13.1 thousand metric tn of nickel in the first quarter of 2009, including 7.4 thousand metric tn of own saleable nickel and 5.7 thousand metric tn of tolled nickel. The decline in capacity utilization is largely explained by the decrease in the nickel intermediates supplies from Australia.

The stated production volumes do not include the production figures of Stillwater Mining Company, a subsidiary of the Company.