Potanin: Belarus–Russia mining equipment aims to take on Caterpillar and Kamaz

Norilsk Nickel has worked with BelAZ for four years. In 2026 the partners began discussing a joint innovation enterprise. Vladimir Potanin, head of Interros and Norilsk Nickel, explained in an Aktualnoye Intervyu interview why innovation and joint Belarus–Russia manufacturing are, in his view, one of the few ways to withstand competition from companies such as Caterpillar and Kamaz.

“Innovation projects are different because they allow us to dream — in the best sense of the word,” Potanin said. “There are ideas for new types of engines: electric drive, gas motor fuel, and later, perhaps, a shift to hydrogen and the creation of an LHD machine. It still sounds a little like a fairy tale. But why were we born, if not to make the fairy tale real?”

He described his own outlook as moderately optimistic. In conventional equipment, he noted, competition is already intense. Caterpillar, Kamaz and others enjoy easier access to capital and deeper technological reserves. Matching, overtaking or even partly holding them off will require the next step, not more of the same.

“That is why we are reaching not only for what can be done right now, but for what could become the technology of the future,” he said. “For that you need partners who are not afraid to lose. Fear of defeat holds you back. If you experiment more boldly, the chances of success rise.”

A second strand of Belarus–Russia cooperation, Potanin said, is digital: capturing data from the machines, building digital twins of components and entire units, and using them to predict behaviour and raise reliability. The aim is to test an assembly in a computer model rather than underground in a mine.

“Here I also see an advantage,” he said. “Belarus and Russia have many specialists in technical fields who are strong in data processing, algorithms, modelling software and predictive diagnostics. That, too, may become a new feature of the partnership.”

Creative work, he added, tends to generate further ideas that are not yet on the table. “Once we go deeper into digital technologies and data, the work itself will suggest new ideas we can put to use.”