Cleaner Zapolyarny plant – Nikel still in jeopardy
First line of pellets plant with minimum emission ready to start by the end of June. Delayed negotiation on modernization of large-scale pollution from Nikel.
- The first line of the new nickel-pellets plant in Zapolyarny will be running by June 30, says the Office of Public Relations and Media at Kola GMK in an e-mail to BarentsObserver. Individual testing and adjusting is currently going on at the plant. Kola GMK is Norilsk-Nickel’s subdivision on the Kola Peninsula.
The second new line of the pellets-plant could be ready in 2012.
Pollution from the pellets plant in Zapolyarny and smelter in Nikel has for decades been a headache in Norwegian-Russian relations. The plants are located some few kilometres from the border. Negative environmental impacts on the Norwegian side are severe and Norwegian authorities are frequently protesting the cross-border pollution.
Read also: Excludes Norilsk Nickel from investment portfolio
While the SO2 emission problem from the plant in Zapolyarny is in the pipe of finding its solution, nothing is still clear about the even larger pollution from the smelter in Nikel.
BarentsObserver reported in January that Norilsk-Nickel is negotiating with Finnish industrial giant Outokumpu to re-build the polluting smelter in Nikel. General Director of Kola GMK Sergey Selyadin then said a deal was supposed to be signed during the first quarter of 2011. By the end of April no deal was signed.
The Office of Public Relations and Media at Kola GMK is very short in their answer on why the announced first quarter deadline was not reached:
- Negotiation with Outokumpu is currently ongoing, reads the e-mail to BarentsObserver.
The annual pollution from the near-border plants in Nikel and Zapolyarny is around 100.000 tons of SO2. Heavy metal emissions are also severe. The landscape surrounding Nikel and Zapolyarny is characterized by dead trees and damaged soil.
The Office of Public Relations and Media did not answered the question from BarentsObserver on how much the company had to pay in fines for pollution from its plants in Nikel and Zapolyarny last year.
Read also: Norilsk Nickel must modernize or pay fines - Putin
