Russia’s biggest miner MMC Norilsk Nickel PJSC is weighing several new projects in copper, nickel and palladium in China as sanctions make cross-border payments and shipments increasingly difficult.
While Nornickel has not been directly sanctioned by either the US or the European Union, its operations have been impacted by wider restrictions since Moscow’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine. The London Metal exchange barred new deliveries of Russian metal this year. Trading with China has become more complicated this year. In June, the US widened its secondary sanctions criteria by broadening the definition of Russia’s military-industrial base, leaving Chinese banks more reluctant to serve Russian transactions.