Norilsk Nickel is poised to pay off $1.83bn of its debts to banks before July 2010, the company's General Director Vladimir Strzhalkovsky told journalists today.

Meanwhile, the Russian mining and metallurgical company's Financial Director Dmitry Kostoyev indicated that Norilsk Nickel's free cash flow in 2009 and 2010 and earlier savings allowed it to service foreign obligations.

As reported earlier, Norilsk Nickel's short-term and long-term liabilities and outstanding loans amounted to $5.317bn as of December 31, 2009, 41 percent of which are long-term and 56 percent are short-term liabilities. The group is expected to pay off $2.972bn worth of loans in 2010.