Nornickel, the world’s largest producer of palladium and high-grade nickel and a major producer of platinum and copper, has announced the start of construction of an icebreaker designed to expand the company’s transportation capacity. Finland’s Helsinki Shipyard Oy signed the contracts for the supply of the main equipment for the icebreaker ordered by Nornickel, and the ship model, designed by Aker Arctic, a design bureau, successfully passed ice and open-water tests.
Nornickel and Helsinki Shipyard are building an icebreaker that will comply with environmental safety standards. The icebreaker will navigate the Yenisei River basin, the Yenisei Bay and the Kara Sea, providing access to the Dudinka seaport for both Nornickel’s corporate fleet and partner vessels. The icebreaker will be commissioned to lay a canal in the Yenisey for company-owned Arc7 ice-class bulk vessels and to tow additional chartered Arc5 cargo vessels with a deadweight of up to 20,000 t. The icebreaker’s homeport will be Murmansk. Nornickel’s Arc7 vessels transport nickel and copper concentrates from Dudinka, the seaport on the Yenisey, and Murmansk, a sea route covered by ice for much of the year.
The concept design of the new icebreaker was developed in cooperation with Aker Arctic Technology Oy. The design work is now proceeding according to the schedule, including the ice model tests, which have already been successfully passed. Project procurement is also proceeding as planned and purchasing contracts for the main equipment for machinery and propulsion have already been signed. The construction work will begin in 2022 and the vessel is expected to be delivered to Nornickel for the winter season 2025.
“It is important for the company to have the new icebreaker completed by the end of 2024. This will enable us to expand the transportation capacity required for Nornickel’s strategic investment projects as well as for the Norilsk renovation plans. We are pleased to announce that the vessel will be powered by LNG in line with the current environmental decarbonisation trends and will be the first LNG-powered icebreaker to guide vessels along the Northern Sea Route,” said Nornickel Senior Vice President Strategy, Strategic Projects, Logistics & Procurement Sergey Dubovitsky.
The new icebreaker will have an integrated dual-fuel diesel-electric power unit, which can use both LNG and low-sulphur diesel oil. This means that it will have great energy efficiency and a low carbon footprint. The new vessel will qualify as Icebreaker8 under the Russian Maritime Register of Shipping and will be able to navigate in snowy ice up to 2 m thick, either ahead or astern. It will be equipped with a helipad and will be able to carry cargo. The new icebreaker will complement Nornickel’s Arctic fleet, which consists of six Arc7-class reinforced ice-class vessels — five container ships and one reinforced ice-class tanker.
