Kommersant business daily quoted Russian billionaire Mr Vladimir Potanin one of the core shareholders of the world top nickel producer Norilsk Nickel says creation of a large mining company by a merger of the country largest miners could still be on the cards.

Mr Potanin head of the Interros investment firm said "The companies include Norilsk and Novolipetsk Steel Evraz Group, where shareholders helped the company including with capital investment, Severstal and Metalloinvest, whose shareholders have also led their firms through the crisis successfully. Many of the companies are potentially interesting for the establishment of a larger company."

He added that he did not rule out partnership with Metalloinvest owned by billionaire Mr Alisher Usmanov with whom he had held talks before the 2008 financial crisis. He also said "Metalloinvest is working successfully, Mr Alisher Burkhanovich (Usmanov) has managed to solve problems he faced when the crisis started."

Mr Potanin did not mention the world largest aluminum producer RusAl, the other Norilsk Nickel core shareholder, among companies he would want to merge Norilsk with.

(Sourced from RIA Novosti)