Although the long-running issue of the declassification of Russian pgm data has now come to a close, Norilsk Nickel has claimed it is no hurry to reveal its pgm figures.

The president of Russia, Vladimir Putin, first signed a decree in March to allow various data on pgms to be revealed, but the information was only declassified this week.

Previously an important audit at Norilsk Nickel was put on hold by the delay in declassification, but now it claims it will not disclose data until the end of 2005.

According to the firm it wants to wait and release reserves information at a time most beneficial to its business, Reuters reports.

Norilsk's head for sales and marketing, Viktor Sprogis, claimed: "The data will be revealed taking into account Norilsk's commercial interests, so that our position on the market is not damaged."

However Norilsk has claimed that it may reveal output, sales and stocks data in March and that an audit has already begun.

The disclosure of the data was introduced by the government to help make the market more transparent, attractive for foreign investment and predictable.