HELSINKI, Oct. 16 --  Finnish miner Talvivaara warned on Monday its nickel production this year was likely to fall short of its already reduced 17,000-tonne target due to heavy rains diluting its leach solution, sending its share price down 6 percent.

Analyst Erkki Vesola at Swedbank in Helsinki estimated Talvivaara's full-year output would now be over 15,000 tonnes but prices have also fallen.

"When one takes into account that the nickel (price) has surprisingly fallen from around $18,500 per tonne to around $17,000 the development for the remainder of the year does not seem very stable."

Talvivaara said it produced around 4,000 tonnes of nickel in the third quarter and expects production to be higher in the final quarter of the year but it had stopped mining and crushing in the beginning of September for around three to four months.

Unusually heavy rains at the Talvivaara mine in Sotkamo, eastern Finland, started in the spring and in September the firm started removing water from the mine pit, estimating the work would take two to three months.

Talvivaara has suffered a series of production problems and in August cut its nickel output target to 17,000 tonnes this year, still ahead of the 16,087 tonnes produced last year but well short of the 25,000-30,000 tonnes it had originally predicted for 2012.

It is due to report third-quarter results on Nov. 8 having made an operating loss of 10.9 million euros ($14.1 million) in the second quarter.