Norilsk Nickel has agreed to sell a 13 per cent stake in a Siberian copper project to a consortium of Chinese investors, as Russian companies increasingly turn to Beijing to help develop new natural resources developments.

Analysts said the $100m deal would mark the first significant equity injection by Chinese investors into a Russian mining project.

Pavel Fedorov, deputy chief executive of Norilsk, the world’s largest producer of nickel and the third-largest global mining company by market capitalisation, told the Financial Times that the deal would be the first sign of greater co-operation with China. He said the company had also signed its first renminbi-denominated loan facility for more than 4.5bn renminbi ($700m) with banks including China’s ICBC.