PHLX Gold/Silver Sector (XAU)

[long-gone]

Russian PGM concentrate output below peak -Norilsk
MOSCOW, June 17 (Reuter) - Russia's main producer of platinum group metals (PGMs), Norilsk Nickel, is producing about 70 percent of the amount of PGM concentrates it did during its peak in 1989-1990, a Norilsk spokesman said on Tuesday.

Anatoly Komrakov provided the information but would not give details on production volumes. He said the production level was not connected to Russia's delays in resuming precious metals exports to Japan.

A second Norilsk spokesman, Sergei Vetchinin, said Norilsk wanted a quick end to the delays. ``We are for the fastest solution to this situation,'' he said. ``The situation concerns us because we are, after all, the producers.''

Vetchinin said Norilsk had reserves of precious metals that had accumulated in recent years but had not been processed due to a lack of adequate technologies.

The Norilsk Nickel metals group, one of the world's largest producers of nickel and PGMs, produces white metals from its own and imported concentrates.