Nornickel and SAP to develop metallurgy IT-solutions in joint laboratory

St Petersburg — 6 June 2019 — Today, at the St Petersburg International Economic Forum, Nornickel and SAP announced the launch of a joint project aiming to develop IT solutions for various industrial sectors. Nornickel will create digital products powered by SAP solutions to be further offered to metals and mining companies around the world. The memorandum was signed by Sergey Malyshev, Senior Vice President of Nornickel, and Andrey Filatov, CEO of SAP CIS, in the presence of Vladimir Potanin, President of Nornickel.

The partners plan to establish a joint innovation laboratory providing a platform for developing innovative scenarios for the industry. The first solution awaiting to be developed is a system to control and manage mining operations. This IT product will make it possible to keep track of the entire feedstock transportation process — from extraction to delivery for subsequent processing. The solution will be developed based on expert appraisals and Nornickel’s requirements. The potential industrial sites to commission the solution will include Komsomolsky, Taimyrsky and Skalisty mines of Nornickel’s Polar Division. Going forward, the solution could be rolled out across other mining operations of the Company.

Another scenario will enable industrial companies to use machine vision for detecting contaminants and nonmetallic elements when

is transported by conveyor. This recognition model reduces the probability of both intrusion of nonmetallic matter and damage and stoppage of expensive crushing equipment. These technologies can also be applied under other scenarios of shop-to-shop transportation.

The developed and tested scenarios, which are designed and prototyped by Nornickel Digital Lab, are planned to be initially implemented across Nornickel and then offered to other metals and mining players in Russia and globally.

Joint innovations will be powered by SAP technologies, in particular SAP HANA. Nornickel’s software products are expected to be distributed domestically and globally both through own channels and SAP price list.

“For us, digital transformation is all about boosting performance which comes as a result of improved labour productivity and reduced costs. Most of our IT projects are aimed at achieving these goals and there are already success stories worth hundreds of millions of roubles. At the same time, we do not strive to become an IT company. That was the reason behind our decision to join our efforts with SAP, our long-time partner and the market leader,” said Sergey Malyshev, Senior Vice President of Nornickel.

“Nornickel’s industry expertise and SAP’s digital leadership will help us develop the most vital digital products, which we expect to be in demand with industrial companies around the world.”

“Today, we increasingly see industrial giants go digital and create fundamentally new products. Russia’s steel industry can already boast many developments that help solve business problems. SAP is actively engaged in developing innovations together with its customers around the globe. We are ready to share our expertise and technologies and to work together on developing IT systems to be further exported to foreign markets. In the end, applying global best practices and tools for local developments is indispensable for accelerating the digital transformation of Russian businesses and enhancing their export potential,” commented Andrey Filatov, CEO of SAP CIS.

About:

Norilsk Nickel is a diversified mining company, the world’s largest producer of nickel and palladium and a leading producer of platinum, cobalt, copper and rhodium. The Company also produces gold, silver, iridium, selenium, ruthenium and tellurium. The ’s production facilities are based in Russia (the Norilsk Industrial District and Kola Peninsula) and Finland. In Russia, the Company’s shares are admitted to trading on the Moscow Exchange and the Saint-Petersburg Exchange. ADRs issued against MMC Norilsk Nickel’s shares are traded on the US OTC market and the London and Berlin stock exchanges.

SAP is the world’s market leader in enterprise application software, helping over 413,000 companies in 180 countries worldwide run at their best. In 1992, SAP SE opened its office in Moscow. At the moment, SAP CIS employs about 1,300 people and is represented in all CIS countries. SAP Labs, a research and development centre, opened in Moscow in 2012 and today has a branch in St Petersburg.

SAP is the only international developer with a data centre in Russia and it keeps expanding its capacities. For over 27 years, SAP has been helping Russian companies to transform and streamline their businesses based on innovative solutions. SAP Digital Space, an innovative hub for events, demonstration of new solutions and joint projects with customers and partners, opened in Moscow in July 2018.

The company invests in training and education, increases competences and develops the ecosystem expertise. Over 60 Russian universities have free access to SAP software to achieve their educational purposes. Twelve SAP Next-Gen Labs, innovative centres for students and young IT experts, opened starting from 2017.