New furnace at Nadezhda Smelter produces first batch of matte

Nornickel has completed its largest repair project of the year: Furnace No. 2 for flash at the Nadezhda Smelter, which was practically rebuilt from scratch, has produced its first batch of . Previously, repairs of this scale took up to 90 days. This time, Norilsk repair teams and plant specialists completed the work in less than 60 days.

Nornickel was able to quickly adapt to challenges and restrictions caused by the halt in equipment supplies from foreign vendors. “We have implemented an ambitious and largely unique project to repair a high-tech furnace at Nadezhda, which, in terms of scale and cost, is comparable to building a new furnace. The project is unique in its speed of execution and the technologies involved—specifically developed for us by Russian specialists. Previously, such a major repair would have been carried out under the guidance of foreign experts. Now, we have completed this work independently, relying on our own experience. As a result, we have significantly increased production efficiency: the furnace’s capacity for processing

has grown by 25%,” emphasized Nikolay Utkin, Senior Vice President of Nornickel and Head of the Norilsk Division.

Today, Nadezhda is the only enterprise in the country using flash smelting technology. The final stage of the global repair was the commissioning of the new furnace. The unit is loaded with solid material—

(concentrate with flux)—and an oxygen-air mixture. At temperatures around 1,300 degrees Celsius, the combustion of sulfides in the concentrate results in smelting. After 12 hours of pyrometallurgical processing, enough melt accumulates for tapping. Over two weeks, Furnace No. 2 is gradually brought to its design capacity, increasing the charge load from a minimum of 80 tons per hour to a maximum of 260 tons per hour.

“The furnace was launched in a record-short time, significantly ahead of the original plans—construction took just two months. This was made possible thanks to the coordinated, precise teamwork of all employees across different divisions of the company. The fact that we commissioned the furnace well ahead of schedule will allow us to confidently fulfill the production program of the Norilsk Division,” said Vitaly Muravyov, Director of the Nadezhda Smelter.

The repair work utilized modern robotic mechanisms: repair teams were assisted by hydraulic hammers, demolition robots, and lifting equipment—spider cranes—while plasma cutters were used for cutting metal structures. Over 3,000 personnel were involved in the repair. Components for the new furnace, weighing over 3,500 tons in total, were delivered to Norilsk disassembled. To efficiently manage all processes and meet the tight deadlines, a unified coordination center was established to oversee the large-scale repair, where real-time data from all contractors was collected. This enabled the swift distribution of tasks and monitoring of work progress.

For the first time, a specially developed virtual assistant also participated in the process. The artificial intelligence provided tips on what to focus on and where to speed up. All of this allowed Nornickel to complete the technical upgrade of the second technological line significantly ahead of schedule, reaffirming its status as a flagship of Russia’s non-ferrous metallurgy industry.